Impact of climate change on vegetable crops discussed

Varanasi: The ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi in association with Y20 (G20 Sub-theme) organised a global youth awareness talk on food security on ‘Abiotic Stress Management in Vegetable Crops: High-Temperature Stress’ on Wednesday.
Attending as speaker, Prof PV Vara Prasad, Director of the Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab at Kansas State University, USA highlighted the impact of high temperature on crops and how climate change will affect crop production in general and production of vegetable crops in particular. He focused his lecture on two important vegetable crops-- tomato and pepper, and the mechanism associated with heat stress tolerance in these crops. He said anthesis (flowering) is the most vulnerable stage to heat stress and it can be managed to a greater extent through different practices. Development of heat stress tolerant varieties is the best solution for getting higher production in the heat stress environment.
Prakash Kumar Jha, assistant professor at Mississippi State University, USA also participated in the event and highlighted the activity of Y20 in the country. He also spoke about the PhD and Post-Doctoral opportunity in the USA.
ICAR-IIVR director TK Behera briefly highlighted the on-going activities of the ICAR-IIVR.
The head of the Division of Crop Improvement, Nagendra Rai, informed that the institute has developed two high temperature tolerant tomato cultivars Kashi Adbhut and Kashi Tapas that can produce fruits under high temperature.
The programme was coordinated by Vidya Sagar and Nakul Gupta while Jyoti Devi was convener of the programme, which was attended by all scientific staff, SRF, young professionals and students.