05 Jul 2019|Noida | F 3 Seminar Hall
Indo-Tunisia Mini Symposium on “Microbes for Sustainable Agriculture”
Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation (AFAF) organized a one day Indo-Tunisia Mini Symposium on “Microbes for Sustainable Agriculture” at Amity University Noida Campus today.
The Mini Symposium was organized with an objective to present and discuss the latest research in application of microbes in the field of Sustainable Agriculture.
Welcoming the gathering, Dr. Nutan Kaushik, DG, Amity Food and Agriculture Foundation said, “It is a great opportunity for scientists and research scholars of both the countries to collaborate for various research projects related to microbes.” She stressed that endophytes are the emerging technology of future which will not only help in sustaining agriculture but will create a sustainable dimension for entire world including humans.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Boujdaria Jamel, Deputy Chief of Mission and First Councilor, The Embassy of Tunisia exclaimed that both India and Tunisia have had very good relationship in the past and collaborations like these help in strengthening the relations further. He apprised that agriculture is given huge importance in Tunisia and research is being done in various areas of agriculture including varieties, hybrids, biotic and abiotic stress etc. He added that Olive, dates and other agricultural commodities are exported on a large scale. Mr. Jamel said that India is widely known for its vast variety of crops and agricultural product that it produces. He lauded the educational institutions like Amity for facilitating and boosting the process of agricultural research. Mr. Jamel opined that microbes has a very important role to play in the area of sustainable agriculture, thus, the symposium organized in this domain would be beneficial for all.
Dr. W. Selvamurthy, President, Amity Science Technology and Innovation Foundation praised Tunisia for its research work particularly in the field of agriculture. He shared that over the years, India has well applied science and technology in agriculture resulting in the country being self-reliant in food production. Dr. Selvamurthy pointed out that after green revolution, the need of the hour is evergreen revolution wherein focus could be on microbes for optimizing the use of fertilizers and help in enriching the soil.
Dr. Naceur Djebali, Center of Biotechnology of Borj Cedria (CBBC), Tunisia was also present during the inaugural session.
During the day, Dr. Shilpi Sharma from IIT Delhi gave a presentation on “Rhizospheric Microbiome as Indicator for Sustainability in Agriculture”; Dr. Ajit Varma, Gp. Dy. Vice Chancellor & Distinguished Scientist & Professor of Eminence, AIMT on “Microbes Transport Essential Nutrients at Target Site for Human Health” and Dr. K. Annapurna, IARI, New Delhi talked about “PGPR Biotechnology for Management of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crops”.
The mini-symposium was attended by the faculty members, researchers and research scholars of Amity University.