ICAR-NBPGR Experimental Station, Issapur is located approximately 45 km away from its Headquarters in South-west part of Delhi bordering Haryana. The area of the farm is 100 acres comprising two blocks. Block A is spread across 70 acres and well developed with boundary wall, roads, irrigation channels, tube wells, ponds and canal water outlet for irrigation. The farm land of A Block is exclusively used for characterization, multiplication and evaluation of field crops germplasm. The block B, measures about 30 acres of land which is largely rainfed and was underutilized. The initiative has been taken to establish field genebank of minor fruits of sub tropical and semi arid region suitable for the region. As a result, 110 accessions belonging to 50 species of minor fruits namely, ber, bael, aonla, neembu, khirni, phalsa, tut, kronda, mahua, etc., are being established in the field gene bank of B Block. Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Director, ICAR-NBPGR visited the farm and and suggested that the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will help in monitoring and management of these horticultural resources maintained in Field gene bank. The Drone based technology has more accuracy than visual phenotyping besides non-destructive in nature.

(Source: Dr Ashok Kumar, Division of Germplasm Evaluation, New Delhi