Dr. V.A. Parthasarathy, the former director of ICAR-IISR in Kozhikode, inaugurated the two-day national conference on "Enhancing Competitiveness of Horticulture through Technology Innovations" on November 17–18, 2022, and noted that science, like recorded history, has many distortions. Experienced scientists were urged by him to re-examine studies from India that had previously mentioned the contribution from the West.

Horticulture and quality of life are inextricably intertwined, and as Dr. Nirmal Babu, a former director of the ICAR-IISR, emphasised in his lecture, excellence and quality are necessary to stay competitive.

The ICAR-CPCRI Director, Dr. Anitha Karun, examined the advancement of various Indian horticultural sub-sectors. Scientists now have a greater responsibility to maintain the trend and the nation's competitiveness with other producer nations because the nation has recently broken records of year-to-year growth in horticulture production.

Dr. Vikramaditya Pandey, Asst. Director General (Hort. Sci. – I) delivered his plenary lecture on ‘Technology innovations on fruits and vegetables’ (online). Many experts from different fields of horticulture science participated in the Conference that include, Dr. S. K. Malhotra, Project Director, Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, ICAR, New Delhi, Dr Ajit Kumar Shasany, Director, National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, Dr. James Jacob, Managing Director, Plantation Corporation of Kerala, Ernakulam, Dr. C.K. Thankamani, Director ICAR-IISR, Kozhikode, Dr. T.N. Raviprasad, Director, ICAR-DCR-Puttur, Dr. B.A. Jerard, Head, Division of Hort. & Forestry ICAR- CIARI, Port Blair, Dr. P.E. Rajasekharan, Principal Scientist, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, Karnataka, and Dr. C.A. Jayaprakash Head, Division of Crop Protection, ICAR-CTCRI, Thiruvanathapuram, Dr. K. Subaharan, Principal Scientist (Entomology), ICAR-NBAIR, Bengaluru and Dr. T. Vanaja, Professor (Plant Breeding & Genetics), Kerala Agril University. The delegates offered felicitations to Dr. Anitha Karun on her superannuation on 30 November 2022.

On the same day, as part of the Conference, a special session, ‘Stakeholders meeting on technology innovations to improve horticulture competitiveness’ was held. Dr. P. Chowdappa, the former Director of ICAR-CPCRI, chaired the inauguration ceremony, which was graced by Sri. M. Devaraj IAS, CMD of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. Personalities form agriculture, software startup, coconut nurseries, NGO, and agri-inputs shared their perspectives in the meet organized by the Kalpa Agri Business Incubator.