Chandigarh, November 8, 2008 :The second day of the National Symposium on New Biology in Agriculture started with a very informative talk by Prof. D.S. Brar from IRRI, Manila , Philippines . He talked about application of genomics in the production of designer crops.
He insisted on cultivating the advanced high yielding varieties of rice as the population is increasing and the area available for agriculture is declining.. He challenged the plant physiologists and plant biotechnologists to raise the harvest index from 0.5 to 0.6 for which IRRI is working for last so many years. He called the scientists for using the research funds efficiently.. Thereafter Prof. Shubhra Chakraborty from national Institute for Plant Genome Research discussed the genomic and proteomic approaches towards gene prospecting and new generation crops. Prof. Ashok Dhawan of Haryana Agricultural University talked about the unique sucrose storage system present in sugarcane. He discussed his 20 years research work with eminent scientists attending the conference. Prof. R.C. Bhattacharaya from National Research Center for Plant Biotechnology talked about endogenous peptide signals in innate defense mechanism of plants.
Dr. Sanjay from IHBT Palampur lectured about bioprospecting genes and pathways from Himalayan flora and their implications in agriculture. Prof. A.K. Bhatnagar from University of Delhi discussed impact assessment of climate change on wheat in India . Prof Renu Deswal, an eminent scientist from University of delhi delivered a talk about proteomic approach to link Unban Smog, nitrosative stress and S-nitrosoproteome in Brassica.
There valedictory proceedeings started which was attended by about 80 delegates. Chief-Guest for the valedictory function was S.S. Bir (Professor Emeritus) from Punjabi University Patiala. He encouraged the young scientists and gave away prizes for winners of poster making competition.