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DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

REPORT ON WEBINAR

With the approval of Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Management and their constant encouragement, one day WEBINAR was conducted on 06-07-2021 and 07-07-2021 by the Department of Biochemistry and Plant Physiology from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in order to enrich knowledge of our faculty and students on “Genomics and its Applications”

Keynote Address

About the first speaker: Dr. Ajay Chaudhary, Field Application Scientist-India. As a Field Application Scientist, He has involved in the pre and post-sales technical support activities in Asia-Pacific Region. His job scope involves NIPT-training distribution, channel partners, and customers such as in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.; on DNB-based NGS technology such as NIFTY test, Thalassemia (ThalSeq), PMseq, Hereditary Cancer Biomarkers, and many more

About the Topic: Dr. Ajay Chaudhary has delivered the lecture on Next Generation Sequencing Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NGS-NIPT) July 6th 2021, Tuesday, 10:00 -11:30 am

About the second speaker: Dr. Rahul Kumar completed his bachelor’s degree in Botany (Hons.) from Botany Department, Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. After completing his masters degree from the Department of Botany, the University of Delhi in 2005, he joined the group of Prof. Akhilesh K. Tyagi and Dr. Arun K. Sharma, in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi South Campus, to pursue his doctoral research.  During his Ph.D, he contributed towards the completion of the sequencing of a part of chromosome 5 of tomato and genetic manipulation of tomato for altered fruit ripening.

Description about second thematic area: Second speaker Dr. Rahul Kumar delivered his talk on genomics and its application in plant research on 7^th July 2021 at 10.00-11.30am

Program: For this Webinar, registration link using Zoom ID and password was created. The link was circulated among students and faculties of Agriculture. More than 400 participants registered for the webinar and 51 participants attended for the webinar both Teaching Faculty Members and Students have participated.

REPORT ON WEBINAR (02-07-2021)

Topic: Dairy farming at a glance

With the approval of Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Management and their constant encouragement, one day WEBINAR was conducted on 02-07-2021 by the department of Animal Science, MSSSoA and Center for Agriculture Production from 02:45 PM to 6:00 PM in order to enrich knowledge of our faculty and students on “Dairy farming” with thematic areas like:

1. Agri-tech startups with dairy farming
2. Automation of farming system
3. Dairy economics
4. Government schemes etc

Keynote Address

About the Chief Guest: Dr Rabindramohan Moharatha was born in a cultivator family from rural areas and started his career with B V Sc & M V Sc by achieving university gold medals. Then, he joined in State Animal Resources Development Dept as Veterinary Doctors and retired as Joint Director-I (Retd) after 38 years of field experiences. During this tenure, he was also co-guide of PG students in animal Reproduction. He had undergone abroad training on Rural Extension Management in Netherlands. After his retirement, he joined as Guest faculty in Odisha Veterinary College, OUAT for 1 year. Now, he was also an involved in training of Veterinary doctors & Paravets on Bovine fertility management by Govt. of Odisha.

Description about first thematic area: During this webinar, the Chief guest Dr Moharatha shared his experiences on dairy farming and under this thematic area he covered the concept and scope of dairy business in India, employability, all weather farming system and automation. He also addressed the field level problems associated with dairy business, housing automation etc.

About the Guest of Honor: Dr. Pramod Kumar Mohapatra started his career as veterinary doctor in the State ARD department after completion of BVSc & AH degree from OUAT. He was been awarded with University Gold medal during his masters in Gynaecology. After 36 years of service in state ARD dept., he retired as Deputy Director. He has also served as Veterinary Expert and Senior Technical Advisor at APICOL and, taken a lead role for establishment of Commercial Dairy, Sheep, Goat and Poultry units throughout the State. Due to his continuous endeavour, he was awarded by the Government of Odisha for lifetime achievement in augmentation of Egg production in the State. Besides Animal Husbandry practices, he has also 10 years of Teaching experience as a Resource Person in Govt. Vocational College.

Description about second thematic area: The guest of honor Dr. Mohapatra shared his valuable experience on supportive mechanisms available for dairy start up in India. In this thematic area he covered India’s global position in dairy-business, demand of milk and its bi-product. He addressed and briefed all the schemes of Government covering loan subsidies in dairy farming. He provided detail of information about documentations for loan etc.

About the first resource person: Dr. Sachin Joshi is a post graduate in Veterinary Medicine and working as Senior Thematic Programme Executive at BAIF Development Research Foundation.  Since 2014, he is working in the capacity of Coordinator in implementing the piloting of sorted semen under varied production environment in India and understanding the success rates (conception rates and calf sex ratio) and adoption of sorted semen among the small holder dairy farms in India. He has 20 years of working experience in the area of livestock research and development. He is the author and co-author of over 35 publications in various journals.

Central Research Station, BAIF is located at Urulikanchan, Pune concentrates presently consisting of animal breeding, reproduction, animal nutrition, feeds, fodder, animal health and service delivery systems.  Some of the notable outcomes were: (i) pioneering the doorstep availability of  pathogen free frozen semen technology across country (iii) country level validation of the sex sorted semen and developing protocols for the production of sex sorted semen from Indian bovine population (iv) introduction of Subabul and its related agronomic practices in India (iv) development and release of new forage varieties namely BAIF Bajra-I and BAIF Napier-10 for national use under ICAR research program (v) Mineral mapping of different agro-eco regions and production of area specific mineral supplements. Besides there are inter disciplinary research themes focusing on land–soil–water–crops–trees-livestock integration.

Description about third thematic area: Dr Joshi shared a very practical experience on AI, its benefits and availability. He addressed details about sex sorted semen and its importance. The production of high productive female calves through SS semen is the recent concept of AI to reduce economical losses through reducing probabilities of male calves. He also showed video clips of highly secured laboratory dealing with SS semen production.

About the second resource person: Dr Bimal Choudhury is currently working as Veterinary Doctor in the ARD department of Govt of Odisha. He is also the founder of Mamata Dairy in Ganjam district. Before joining in Govt, he has worked in leading corporates like Reliance, Venkys etc. He was also technical advisor of milk moo

Description about fourth thematic area: Dr Choudhury addressed all field level and managemental problems associated with dairy farming. He also described about common diseases associated dairy farming and its control strategies. The valuable information he shared was that animal health, nutrition and environment play a crucial role in production. Also, the breed upgradation is an aid to it for production capabilities.

About the third resource person: Mr. Surendra Nath is director of Vaisali Dairy Pvt Ltd. Vaisali Dairy delivers hydroponic feed through Doodh Sagar for cow. They are targeting majorly to low-cost feeding and enhancement of production to increase income of farmers. Presently they are collecting 1500 litres milk per day from farmers and selling in packed bottles.

Description about fifth thematic area: Mr Nath described details about hydroponic fodder production and its marketing. He also addressed the importance of these fodder in nutritional requirement of dairy cows and reduction of production costs.

About the fourth resource person: Mr. Pravat Kumar Panda is native of Bhadrak. After graduating in science, he joined sales profession in 1994 and started own business in 2014. Now he is having own establishment in Cuttack and a certified distributor of De-Laval. Presently, he has done automation of many dairy farms.

Description about sixth thematic area: Mr Panda described about the automation of dairy farm. He showed all available machineries, cost involved and its availability. He also addressed the farmers about the scope, importance and biasness that rural household often faced in term of business by many local companies. He shared all his experiences with farm machinaries.

Program: For this Webinar, registration link using Zoom ID and password was created. The link was circulated among students and faculties of university, progressive farmers and corporate members. More than 1000 participants registered for the webinar and 750 participants attended for the webinar including Teaching Faculty Members, Students, corporate persons and progressive dairy farmers.

From the WEBINAR, the participants had the opportunity to know about the Dairy farming, automation through various machineries and equipment, health and farm management, sex sorted semen and its utility, and different types of Government schemes and loan for it.

Valedictory Session – Dr. Abhishek Hota proposed vote of thanks to CUTM management committee and all the participants and gave concluding remarks about webinar and also, he expressed his overall views about webinar and congratulated all for successful completion of webinar.

Picture Gallery

A National webinar was conducted on Interventions of Biotechnology in Agriculture, with a theme of in vitro micro-propagation of commercially important crops like            Bamboo, Banana, Gerbera, Sugarcane, and many more        ornamental, aromatic and herbal plants on 29^th June, 2021, organised by Department of Biotechnology, MS Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Paralakhemundi, Odisha. The webinar was blessed with the presence of the Chief Guest, Dr. N. Barathi, Founder Director, Growmore Biotech Ltd, Hosur, Tamil Nadu. He has a rich experience profile with multitudinous crucial roles, including former Agriculture Scientist in Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Commission committee member for High-tech Horticulture, and Director of a Tissue Culture Lab of the capacity 10-100 lakhs plants/annum. He has successfully micro-propagated 85 different species of plants via tissue culture and exports the produce to more than 30 countries. Currently, he is leading the Growmore Biotech Ltd. producing around 11 million bamboo plants per year and his focusing on use of bamboo for generation of electricity and other bamboo produces, like bioethanol.

In this webinar more than 230 number of participants were registered and attended the webinar online, including, students of agriculture all over India, stake holders, faculties, scientist, private entrepreneurs etc. The programme provided an opportunity to faculty members, research scholars, post-graduate and under-graduate students to enrich their theoretical knowledge and research-cum-entrepreneurial aptitude by the lecture session of the eminent speaker. The aim of this webinar was to provide current scenario and future opportunity of tissue culture in field of agriculture research, production, and entrepreneurship.

Presentations

Interventions of Biotechnology in Agriculture

(Theme: In vitro micro-propagation of commercially important crops like            Bamboo, Banana, Gerbera, Sugarcane, and many more ornamental, aromatic and herbal plants)

Dr. Dr. N. Barathi, Founder Director, Growmore Biotech Ltd, began the webinar with an introductory presentation, first explaining briefly about his past experience and his transitional journey, from research to production, and then, from production to entrepreneurship. Subsequently, he briefed on the tissue culture basics and approaches for a successful tissue culture practice. Later, he explained the purpose of micro-propagation in tissue culture and how to generate the multiple true copies of a pedigree plant via cloning. Interestingly, he shared his inventions during his tissue culture journey, like development of the in-house tissue culture containers (for growing plants) and the vertical plant growing area (the sun-light room) that not only cut downed the material and consumable costs, but also increased the production. Later on his presentation, he emphasized on how bamboo can be the next disruptive technology to dominate the times to come. This was followed up with an enlightening report on the production of bamboo-based fuels, and how our over dependency on fossil fuels can be curbed with the help of bamboo production. Dr. Barathi concluded his presentation by highlighting the applications of micro-propagation of bamboo and bamboo-based produces, including renewable energy and apparels for environmental security, livelihood sustainability, and economic significance. He encouraged the webinar participants to explore more in the area of commercial tissue culture production and to be successful entrepreneurs.

REPORT ON WEBINAR-24-06-2021

With the approval of Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Management and their constant encouragement, one day WEBINAR was conducted on 24-06-2021 by the department of Agriculture Extension and Communication from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM in order to enrich knowledge of our faculty and students on “Startup Ecosystem in Agriculture” with  thematic areas like:

1. Agri-tech startups with smart farming technology
2. Startup formation process
3. Supportive mechanisms available in India

Keynote Address

About the first speaker: Dr. Sagar Surendra Deshmukh, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management-MANAGE, Hyderabad since 2017.

He is performing job responsibility in development and strengthening of Agri Clinics &Agri Business Center and also he is organizing and improving programmes mainly to support Agri Entrepreneurship at incubation center by facilitating business support services like infrastructure facility, funding, capacity building, technical and business monitoring.

Description about first thematic area: During this webinar, our first speaker shared the experience on Agri tech startups with smart farming technology and under this thematic area he covered the concept like scope of Agri startups in India, examples for startups has been supported by MANAGE, Hyderabad, different startups in Agriculture, initiatives of MANAGE-CIA has taken up, many relevant resources to know more about startups and seven ongoing programmes like RKVY-RAFTAAR, Krishi Vikas, AC & ADP, Incubation program, Impulse, Membership program, Agri Tech startup Accelerator.

About the second speaker: Dr.PurnabhaDasgupta, Director-Action-Research, PRASARI, He is currently experiencing with resource poor farmers, centric-state in art innovations farm managing, water resource and business strategies. He has worked with the growth network of academic institutions, Govt. departments and private entities and also monitoring Farmers Producers Organizations’ (FPO) in Sunderban areas. He also serves as an advisor to the board of Women Co-operatives with the Govt. of West Bengal and worked as a resource person in NABARD funded sustainable agricultural promotional project.

Description about second thematic area: Second speaker Dr.Purnabha Dasgupta shared his valuable experience on supportive mechanisms available for Agri startups in India. In this thematic area he covered India’s global position in Agri-business both demand and supply side,  comparison of agri produce and allied sector export in USD, growth drives for agri startups, programmes and policy support mechanisms in India, financial support available from Govt. and private sources, focus areas in Agri startups and steps for Agri startups funding.

About the third speaker: Dr.Sushanta Kishore Khuntia, Managing Director, Dependable Agri Services Pvt. Ltd. He worked in Corporation strategy and production management as well as in front line business development. He has extensively worked with Farmers’ Producer Organization (FPO) and NGO’s and also worked in Reliance industries and agri business and banking sectors. His area of expertise like business analysis, strategy, planning, monitoring, business development, entrepreneurship management, teaching, banking, and financial service.

Description about third thematic area: Dr.Sushanta Kishore Khuntia shared a very practical experience on Startup formation process in this thematic area he covered various entrepreneurship startups oriented programmes in Odisha, importance of startups, product development support, incubation support, and commercialization support, difficulties in understanding the process to start a Agri startups and how startups are going to benefited to the society.

Program: For this Webinar, registration link using Zoom ID and password was created. The link was circulated among students and faculties of Agriculture. More than 400 participants registered for the webinar and 164 participants attended for the webinar both Teaching Faculty Members and Students have participated.

From the WEBINAR, the participants had the opportunity to know about the Agri-tech startups with smart farming technology, startup formation process and supportive mechanisms available in India.

Valedictory Session – Prof. Chitrasena Padhy proposed vote of thanks to CUTM management committee and all the participants and gave concluding remarks about webinar and also he expressed his overall views about webinar and congratulated all for successful completion of webinar.

Report on webinar organized by Center for Smart Agriculture

Webinar was organized by Center for Smart Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management in the motive of sharing the knowledge and practical experience of invited speakers on Drones in Smart Farming dated June 23, 2021 from 3.30pm to 6.00pm.

Session was started with welcome address by Dr. Dipankar Bhattacharayay, Professor and Mentor, Centre for Smart Agriculture followed by guest of honour Dr. Devender Reddy. Introductory message is given by Dr. Sagar Maitra, Coordinator, Center for smart agriculture. Dr. Dinkar Gaikwad gave a brief introduction of invited speakers.

The keynote Speaker Dr. A. SAMBAIAH, Senior Scientist (Agril.Engg.) PI of APSARA Project. ANGRAU, He has completed Ph.D in Agricultural Engineering from  IARI, New Delhi  He has many achievements like he was All India 1st Ranker in ICAR JRF examination in 2000 and All India 1st Ranker in IARI PhD Entrance Examination in 2002. He has many awards in his pocket,

He has been awarded with Best Teacher Award in 2016 and Meritorious Scientist Award in 2017,  He is a Member of Technical Advisory Committee, Krishna Tribunal matters on Resolving water disputes between A.P & Telangana from 2017- till date. He is Member of National Committee on drones for guidelines on soil nutrient applications, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, GoI, 2021. He is Member of National Sub-Committee on Precision Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare , GoI, 2021 He is also Member of State Level Technical Committee on Micro Irrigtion, Govt of Andhra Pradesh. He has handled many Projects  like Mole Drainage Project,  APSARA Project (A.P. Sensors and Smart Applications Research in Agriculture),  REWARD Project (Rejuvenating Watershed for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development)  which is funded by World Bank.

Second keynote speaker Mr. Abhishek Burman, is a Founder Director & CEO, has more than one and half decades of experience in the field of Aircraft Design and Systems Engineering. He has played key role in Design & Development of India’s Combat Aircraft Programs and spearheaded Aerodynamics & Configuration Design towards concept study of Regional Transport Aircraft. His experience also includes Flow Physics investigations using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Stealth Design, Flight Mechanics, Flight Data Analysis, Testing & Certification of Fighter Aircraft, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Design, Multi Disciplinary Analysis & Optimization and Program Management.

Webinar was attended by 183 participants. Programme was moderated by Dr. Sivala Kumar, Professor, SoABE and votes of thanks were given by Moderator.

The objective of the webinar was achieved. The overall session discussion benefitted the faculties and this webinar would help the participants to do their implementation in research center work.

Snaps of webinar

School of Fisheries FDP

A National webinar was conducted on Casting into the future of Fisheries and Aquaculture, on 22nd and 23rd June, 2021, organised by School of Fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Paralakhemundi, Odisha. The resource persons were well known eminent scientist in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. The webinar was blessed with the presence of the Chief Guest, Dr. B. P. Mohanty Assistant Director General (I.Fy), ICAR, New Delhi and Guest of honour, Dr. N. P. Sahu Joint Director, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai for the first sessions. Then in the afternoon session was rewarded with the resource persons such as Dr. M. Krishnan P.S. and Head (Retd.), Social Sciences Div., ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai and Dr. Latha Shenoy P.S. (Retd.), FRM Division, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai.

In this webinar more than 1026 number of participants were registered and attended the webinar online, including, students of fisheries all over India and other countries, farmers, stake holders, faculties, scientist, private entrepreneurs etc. The programme provided an opportunity to Faculty members, Research scholars, post graduate and under-graduate students to enrich their theoretical knowledge and research aptitude by lecture session of eminent speakers in area on sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and export. The aim of this webinar was to provide current scenario and trend of fisheries and aquaculture and how to develop it in a sustainable way forward to meet the nutritional security.

Presentations

1. Introduction to the Webinar: Fisheries & Aquaculture for Livelihood, Food & Nutritional Security and a Zero hunger world

Dr. B. P. Mohanty Assistant Director General (I.Fy), ICAR, began the webinar with an introductory presentation, first explaining briefly about the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Fisheries Science Division, about its vision “Fish for All for Ever’ and the mission, Sustainable growth of Indian fisheries and aquaculture by interfacing research, education and extension resulting in a proper fit between the human needs and the habitat, with an important role in global fisheries. Then he has explained about the important of food, nutrition and nutrients, FAO goal of world with out hunger, food security and identified key elements (figure 2). He emphasized that, fish can play an important role in preventing Protein-Calorie malnutrition. He has briefed about the micronutrients such as vitamin and minerals and their deficiency diseases and explained fish as a tool for fighting three dimensions of hunger; by emphasizing its important as a Superfood. Fish are important source of Quality Animal Proteins, rich source of micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), fish oils are rich source of PUFAs, especially w-3 EPA & DHA, rich source of and anti-oxidants, Small indigenous fishes are nutrient dense-rich source of Micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), fish – a source of all nutrients (except carbohydrates) and finally availability and affordability is better for fish compared to any other animal origin meat. Dr. Mohanty concluded his presentation by highlighting the importance of fish or nutrition security and livelihood security, fighting hunger, and alleviating malnutrition. He encouraged the webinar participants to eat more fish by illuminating that ‘Let Food be thy Medicine’.

2. Moving towards feed-based aquaculture: Challenges and Strategies

Dr. N. P. Sahu Joint Director, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai, an eminent scientist in fish nutrition in India has delivered the second lecture in the webinar regarding the topic Moving towards feed-based aquaculture: Challenges and Strategies. He has delivered about the importance of culture fisheries over capture fisheries, feed based aquaculture to boost fish production. He has also given a brief description about Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana – PMMSY and its highlights such as it is a scheme to bring about blue revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in India. The scheme intends to address critical gaps in fish production and productivity, quality, technology, post-harvest infrastructure and management, modernization and strengthening Value-Chain, traceability, establishing a robust fisheries management framework and fishers’ welfare. It will be will be implemented in all States and UTs for a period of five years

3. Trends in seafood exports of India

Dr. M. Krishnan P.S. and Head (Retd.), Social Sciences Div., ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai, an eminent scientist in the field of fisheries economics, India has delivered a class on trends in seafood exports of India, where he explained in detail about the impact of COVID 19 on seafood export and future challenges.

4. Current status and road to sustainable marine fisheries development in India

Dr. Latha Shenoy P.S. (Retd.), FRM Division, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai a well-known scientist in the field of fisheries resource management, in India has delivered her lecture on the topic Current status and road to sustainable marine fisheries development in India. She has started the lecture with important role of fisheries in the Indian economy and presented revalidated marine fisheries resource potential of India (figure 3). Detailed about the issues in marine fisheries such as about 60% of global fish stocks are fully fished, 30% overfished and10% underfished, overfishing (biological overfishing, growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing, ecosystem overfishing), destructive fishing, bycatch/discards, climate change impact.
Then she explained about sustainable development goals (SDG) such as SDG 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development and Indian scenario of SDG 14 (Figure 4). She has also given views on the sustainability and development in the context of PMMSY as it is a revolutionary scheme of Government of India that aims to bring about blue revolution in India through sustainable and responsible fisheries development. She concluded with management measures and technical interventions to mitigate impact of overfishing/unsustainable practices, Gear or exploitation related:Gear selectivity, banning specific gear practices, gear substitution, modifying or deploying a gear in a less harmful manner, Habitat related: Protecting vulnerable habitat and closed areas including MPAs, measures to reduce bycatch/discards.Followed by a questions and answer session and after the completion of the webinar certificates have been issued for all the participants online

Dr. A. K. Reddy superannuated as Principal Scientist in 2016 at ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai. Thereafter, he was appointed as ICAR Emeritus Scientist. His major areas of fields include Giant Freshwater Prawn seed production & culture, Carp seed production & culture, Shrimp Seed production & culture, Inland saline aquaculture, Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture in North Eastern States, Management of open water bodies through community participation and establishment of Carp, Shrimp and Prawn Hatcheries in various parts of India. He was involved in several research projects funded by NABARD, ICAR, DBT, DST and National Agricultural Innovation Project funded by World Bank through ICAR. He won Dr. Hiralal Choudari Award for “Transfer of Technology” and Dr. Hiralal Choudari Award for “Best Technical Staff” twice and was given the Distinguished Technologist Award by the Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, Bhopal in 2002. He collaborated with Universidad Juarez Autonoma Tabasco, Mexico to establish a pilot hatchery for Macrobrachium carcinius and complete its life-cycle, and to train staff and students in 2013 and 2014.

Dr. Felix was the Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Fisheries University. He has around 34 years of teaching experience and is specialized in Aquaculture and Aquaculture Biotechnology and Systems development. He mobilized more than 150 Crores for the University in the form of Research & Development grants and contributed for obtaining 12-B status from UGC and ICAR accreditation for TNFU. He developed over a dozen off-campus facilities for TNFU for the benefit of students & farmers and developed and introduced raceway culture technology for the first time in India. The Aquatic Rainbow Technology Park created at Madhavaram for ornamental fish culture is the first of its kind in the country. He created two new Fisheries Colleges for the University and developed 36 constituent units for the University all over the state in a short span of time. He has 10 patents published on various aquaculture technologies to his credit. He was the President (elect) of the World Aquaculture Society (Asia Pacific Chapter).

Dr. Sanath Kumar is a Principal scientist (Microbiology) in Post-Harvest Department of Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India. He completed his B.F.Sc., M.F.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology, College of Fisheries Mangalore. He has wide post-doctoral research experience in India and overseas laboratories in Japan, Germany and the USA. His research is on seafood-borne pathogens, their virulence mechanisms, physiology & genetics of pathogen persistence in food, antimicrobial resistance, toxins, membrane transporters of sugar and efflux pumps, metagenome analysis of disease causes in shrimps and microbial-mediated fish waste management. He has published over 90 research papers in peer reviewed international journals, several book chapters and popular articles.

Dr. Annam Pawan Kumar works as Senior Scientist in the Division of Fish Genetics and Biotechnology with ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education Mumbai. He worked as a Research Associate with the Department of Biology, University of Bogata, Columbia in 2013, to study about conservation of genetic resources. He was involved in several noteworthy projects funded by ICAR-CIFE, DST, Department of Environment and Forestry (GoI) and Department of Biotechnology (GoI). He was the recipient of Dr. Hiralal Chaudhary Gold Medal for securing first position in M. F. Sc. programme of Fish Genetics and Biotechnology of the academic year 2004-06 at CIFE, Mumbai, recipient of Prof. Ali Kunjhi Award for Best Ph.D. thesis in Fisheries in India during 2012 and recipient of “Best Young Faculty award” from ICAR-CIFE for the year 2014-15. He has a number of publications in acclaimed journals and has reviewed 52 research articles for 27 international journals.

Report on webinar organized by Centre for Smart Agriculture

Webinar was organized by Centre for Smart Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management in the motive of sharing the knowledge and practical experience of invited speakers on Smart Farming and IoT intervention dated June 18, 2021 from 3.30pm to 6.00pm.

Session was started with welcome address by Dr. Dipankar Bhattacharayay, Professor and Mentor, Centre for Smart Agriculture followed by guest of honour Dr. Devender Reddy. Introductory message is given by Dr. Sagar Maitra, Coordinator, Centre for smart agriculture. Dr. Dinkar Gaikwad gave a brief introduction of invited speakers.

The keynote Speaker Prof. K.N. Tiwari is Emeritus Professor, at Agricultural and Food Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Tiwari has more than 36 years of experience in the field of Irrigation and Water Resources Management. He has taught several courses related

to Land and Water Resource Engineering to UG/PG/PhD students. He has developed infrastructure for conducting indoor irrigation and on farm field irrigation laboratory and demonstration set-up of Microirrigation System at IIT Kharagpur. Major research infrastructure facilities are developed in the field of micro irrigation in field crops, protected cultivation structures, hydrology, water balance monitoring system in the experimental farm at IIT Kharagpur and Digital Image Processing facilities which are unique in the country and the World. He has developed Hardware and Software for precise application of water to the plants irrigated using Micro Irrigation (MI). Seven Patents are to his credit on these innovations. He has been the Principal Investigator of more than 10 Sponsored Research Projects dealing with water

conservation and management which are the thrust areas of Water Resources and Management Development having national importance. Prof. K. N. Tiwari has published more than 100 research papers in the Journals of Internationally Repute, 2 International monograms on Remote Sensing Applications, training manuals and technical bulletins. He received UNESCO and DAAD Fellowships for Post Doctoral research studies. He has been honoured with the Fellow of the i) Indian Water Resources Society (IWRS), ii) Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers, iii) National Academy of Sciences (NASc) India, and iv) National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). He is recipient of i) Eminent Water Resources Scientist Award (2016) of IIT Roorkee, ii) Rafi Ahmed Kidwai award (2014) of ICAR, New Delhi, iii) Hari Krishna Shastri Memorial award (2013) of IARI, New Delhi, iv) Shankar Memorial award (1998) of ISAE, and v) Commendation Medal (1994) from ISAE.

Second keynote speaker Mr. Krishna is a founder of Modern Acres India Private Limited which is an award-winning start-up in innovating modern agricultural techniques. Currently he is in active hydroponics research, consultation and deployment of rural micro-agricultural farms. Mr. Krishna is a full-time entrepreneur and works on embedded systems, system architecture & design at his startup. His goals have been trying to minimize human error and interaction at protected farms by maximizing the quality and quantity of production output, With a systematic, easy to use platform thats currently under development will change the management of soil-less agricultural practices. Apart from that, He is the winner of awards such as Startup Odisha Yatra 2019 and Odisha Agri Hackathon – Sri Sri Univ. 2019 and Best B-Plan at IIIT Allahabad 2019 and many other Hackathons and accolades like “Young CEO” & Best Startup founder by National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (NSDC) to name some.

Third Keynote speaker Mr. Ashish is An alumnus of NIST, Berhampur (graduated in year 2000), Mr. Asish started off in the corporate world. From a cushy job in a Telecom MNC to farming, Mr. Asish has seen it all. This was in August 2018. The first seed of green, natural, and healthy farming was sown and Bloomenara was born. Mr. Asish is one of those new-age farmers who have given up their corporate jobs and have taken a plunge into farming. Mr. Asish’s vision to convert conventional farming into innovative farming so we can free our food and land from chemical and harmful pesticides and to save our earth, our health, our upcoming generation, the entire humankind, the entire animals that are directly or indirectly dependent on farming and the future of the world.

Webinar was attended by 213 participants. Programme was moderated by Dr. Sivala Kumar, Professor, SoABE and votes of thanks were given by Moderator.

The objective of the webinar was achieved. The overall session discussion benefitted the faculties and this webinar would help the participants to do their implementation in research centre work.

Plant Protection Current and Future Perspective FDP report

Report of Webinar on

“Plant Protection: Current and Future Perspective”

The webinar was conducted during 11^th to 14^th June 2021 in the Series of Faculty Development Programme (FDP) organized by Department of Entomology and Department of Plant Pathology, M. S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India.

The Webinar entitled “Plant Protection: Current and Future Perspective” provides an opportunity to Faculty members, Research scholars, Post graduate and Under-graduate students of our campus as well as across the country to enrich their theoretical and practical knowledge along with research aptitude by lecture sessions of eminent speakers in area of Plant Protection. The aim of this webinar was to providing fundamental and research understanding to faculties and students.

The resource persons discussed the following topics with participants:

In this webinar, 928 participants were registered and 758 were actively participated, for which participation certificate was issued.

Dr. S. P. Nanda (Dean, Admin) was organizing secretory of the webinar and Dr. M. Devender Reddy (Dean, Academics) welcomed all the respected dignitaries and participants with brief views regarding the objectives of Webinar and our University, followed by Dr. Nihal R. and Mr. Ritesh Kumar, (Conveners of the Webinar) who introduced the resource persons to the participants and then the technical session started from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. during 11^th to 13^th June, 2021 and 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM on 14^th June, 2021 on Zoom as well as You tube platform provided by the University. Mr. Deepayan Padhy monitored the queries of participants and help them in their clarification. Dr. Gagan Kumar, Ms. Abhinandita Sahoo, Mr. Deepak Kandher, Dr. Riya Mukhopadhyaya, Miss Lipsa Dash, Mrs. V. Ramalakshmi, Ms. Sudhanshu Bala Nayak helped for successful organization of the webinar.

In nutshell, the webinar provided a conceptual understanding on plant protection in a new and innovative approaches for traditional as well as newly introduced plant pathogens and insect pests.

Vote of Thanks:

The Webinar was successfully completed with vote of thanks to the honorable President sir, Vice President sir, Vice Chancellor madam, Registrar madam, All Deans, Department HoDs, Senior faculties, Invited Speakers and all participants by Dr B. Praveen, Head, Department of Plant Pathology.

Microbial Pesticide – Webinar

Report on Webinar conducted On 06-June-2021

 Webinar On “Microbial Pesticides – A Way towards Crops and Environmental Protection ” organized by Centre for Agriculture Production and Department of Plant Pathology, M. S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Paralakhemundi, Odisha.

Resource Person:

1. B. K. Sarma, Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
2. Anukool Vaishnav, Assistant Professor, Plant Biotechnology, GLA, University, Mathura, India
3. Neeraj Kumar Prajapati, The Bicycle Man of Indian Agriculture

Date and Time: 06-06-2021 and 10.00 AM to 4.00 PM.

Number of participants: 304

A Webinar On “Microbial Pesticides – A Way towards Crops and Environmental Protection ” by Centre for Agriculture Production and Department of Plant Pathology, M. S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha at Paralakhemundi campus on 06^th June 2021. The programme provided an opportunity to Faculty members, Research scholars, post graduate and under-graduate students to enrich their theoretical knowledge and research aptitude by lecture session of eminent speakers in area of microbial pesticide. The aim of this webinar was providing fundamental and research understanding to faculties and students.

The resource person discussed the following topics with participants:

1. Scope of microbial pesticide
2. Role of microbial pesticide in managing plant diseases
3. Plant Stress Management by Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) within Plant Holobiont
4. Progress and prospects of microbial pesticides for management of phytopathogens
5. Organic farming in India

In this webinar more than 300 participants were registered and participated.

Dr. Durga Prasad Padhy (Professor), Organizing secretory of the webinar and Coordinator, Centre for Agriculture Production welcomed all the respected dignitaries and participants with brief introduction of Centurion University. Followed by Dr. Gagan Kumar, convener and Miss Abhinanadita, Assistant Professor, introduced the resource person to the participants and then the technical session started from 10.10 AM to 4.00 PM.

In summary, the webinar provided a conceptual understanding on microbial pesticide use in plant diseases management. In addition, the importance of microbial pesticide was discussed briefly during the webinar.

Vote of Thanks:

The Webinar was successfully completed with vote of thanks to the CUTM management, the registrar, All Deans, Department HoDs and senior faculties of our institute by Dr B. Praveen, Head, Department of Plant Pathology and Dr. Gagan Kumar (Convener of the webinar), Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology.