Germplasm Field Day on Maize was organized at ICAR-NBPGR, IARI Farm, New Delhi on 15th September, 2016

The Germplasm Field Day on Maize was organized at ICAR-NBPGR, IARI Farm, New Delhi on 15th September, 2016. It was attended by 40 scientists from 06 State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and 03 ICAR institutes. On behalf of Director, NBPGR, Dr. SC Dubey, Head, Plant Quarantine Division inaugurated the Field Day. He impressed upon the importance of the activity of Germplasm Field days for enhancing the utilization of the germplasm conserved in national Genebank. He urged scientists to provide the feedback on germplasm utilization. Dr. JC Rana, Head Germplasm Evaluation Division informed about the Field Days organized during the year and appealed to the breeders to make best use of available variability in the breeding programme and also give critical inputs during interactive sessions in order to fine tuning the germplasm evaluation programmes at Bureau. Dr. Ashok Kumar, Principal Scientist informed about the germplasm grown at NBPGR Farm at IARI, New Delhi. All the scientists visited the NBPGR Farm, IARI where 800 accessions of diverse origin were grown for characterization and evaluation and rainout shelter where 109 accessions were grown for evaluation against drought tolerance. The scientists selected the germplasm suitable for various traits and their needs. During interaction meeting, the detailed discussion was held and scientists laid emphasis for evaluating germplasm for traits such as water logging, earliness, forage types, specialty corns, etc. The field day concluded with vote of thanks.