Sri Apurba Roy, IAS, Hon’ble Secretary to the Government of Tripura and Sri Saradindu Das, Director, Agriculture, Government of Tripura visited ICAR-CPCRI, Regional Station Kayamkulam on 06-06-2022. During their brief visit to the campus on 06-06-2022, the esteemed dignitaries visited the experimental plots of the Regional Station viz., fertigation in coconut system, evaluation of dwarf coconut genotypes in root (wilt) disease tracts and coconut-based crop habitat diversification for pest regression. In addition, the delegation visited the coconut tissue culture and cryo-preservatory laboratories and took note on the technological advancements conducted at the Regional Station. They also interacted with the scientists of the Regional Station.

Sri Apurba Roy and Sri Saradindu Das were overwhelmed by the uniform crop stand and early bearing of coconut hybrid (Kalpa Sankara) as well as biodiversity conservation strategies in crop pluralistic coconut garden which is climate-smart and double farmer’s income. Finer details of tissue culture protocols as well as ground pollination techniques were recorded for further follow-up.

The visiting team was interested in technological collaboration with ICAR-CPCRI on programmes such as

• Establishment of crop cafeteria in coconut-based system with micro-irrigation facility

• Establishment of tissue culture facility in Tripurafor different horticultural crops