Varanasi: A 10-day national-level capacity-building training programme on “Mainstreaming of Opportunity Vegetable Crops: Production Technology, Seed Systems and Market Linkages” commenced on Monday at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research here on Monday.The programme is being attended by scientists and faculty members from diverse disciplines representing eight states across the country. Participants include representatives from ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), Nagaland University and other organisations.The training brings together experts and participants from multiple disciplines to deliberate on various aspects of opportunity vegetable crops, including production technologies, genetic resources, seed systems, crop improvement, crop protection, nutritional attributes, value addition, entrepreneurship and market linkages.Experts highlighted the relevance of the training and stressed the need for greater scientific attention, popularisation and mainstreaming of opportunity vegetable crops. They said such crops have the potential to move beyond their current status as locally important and underexploited resources and emerge as scientifically validated, economically viable and commercially scalable crops.The 10-day programme is expected to provide a national platform for knowledge exchange, capacity building and networking among scientists and faculty members working on diverse opportunity vegetable crops. It will also facilitate interaction among researchers from different disciplines and institutions and help strengthen efforts towards the development and wider adoption of these crops.The inaugural programme was addressed by ICAR-IIVR director Rajesh Kumar, Rakesh K. Dubey, Principal Scientist and Course Coordinator, and scientists Vikas Singh, Jyoti Devi and Keshav Kant Gautam.The programme will cover scientific and practical aspects of opportunity vegetable crops, with emphasis on strengthening production, seed systems, value addition and market linkages to support their wider commercialisation.
