Tuesday: Aug 20, 2019, 5:19 PM
The project is aimed at improving soil fertility
Ludhiana: 20th August 2019: (Punjab Screen Bureau)::
Mr Dan Alluf, Counselor, Embassy of Israel, India, visited PAU today to discuss progress on a collaborative research project on brackish water, started in 2012. Collaboration between PAU and MASHAV, Israel, the project is aimed at improving soil fertility and plant growth by desalinating brackish water (ground water surveys have shown that about 41% of the well waters are brackish) through installation of a desalination plant with capacity of 10,000 litres per hour , having 90% efficiency since April, 2015.
In his remarks, PAU Vice Chancellor, Dr B.S. Dhillon (Padam Shri awardee) highlighted the primary concern of improving the livelihood of farmers, while keeping water conservation as a prime target. He dwelled on the need for value chains to make farming profitable in the near future. Dr Dhillon called for exchange of scientists between the two countries to intensify further research on fruit and vegetable cultivation in brackish water.
Mr Alluf, while applauding the work done by PAU scientists, called for working in synergy to get maximum output from the project. Giving example of Israel’s agricultural success, despite being a desert, he laid out the road map for Indo-Israel value chain through post harvest management and marketing. While prioritizing water conservation, Mr Alluf discussed technology transfer in fertigation, irrigation, new Israeli varieties, plant protection and weed control, post harvest management, pollination and water re-use.
Project Head and Head, Department of Soil science, Dr O.P. Chaudhry informed that the project is using clean energy provided by solar photo voltaic cells of 60 KW installed at the site in Bathinda and as such dependency of the project on electricity is very low.
Giving further details, Dr Chaudhry informed that 66% of the fruits and 35-40% vegetables are grown in areas afflicted with brackish ground waters. He said that with the water table going down and farmers of the South western Punjab districts relying on good quality canal water for irrigation, it will be imminent in the near future to use marginal and brackish waters for irrigation/supplemental irrigation for fruit and vegetable production.
Additional Director of Research, Dr MIS Gill, and senior scientists of the University were present during the meeting.
