The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) inked a memoranda of agreement (MoAs) with Ascen Hy Veg Private Limited, Manesar, Gurugram (Haryana); Banwait Brother, Phagwara, Ludhiana (Punjab); Punjab Agro Poly House Seeds, Ambala (Haryana) and F-Tech Foods, Miller Ganj, Ludhiana (Punjab) for licensing of chilli hydrid CH-27, nutrition garden model using soilless media, frozen potato and frozen vegetables technologies, and Punjab Kheera1, respectively. Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, PAU, and Dr D.K. Sharma, Mr Harbans Singh, Mr Sulinder Sharma and Er Paramveer Singh and their partners signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

Dr S.S. Chahal, Adjunct Professor, Technology Marketing and IPR Cell, informed that PAU has signed 209 MoAs and commercialized 50 technologies.

Dr K.G. Singh, Head-cum-Senior Research Engineer, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, said PAU has become pioneer in developing rooftop/terrace vegetable nutrition garden model for urban and peri-urban population using soilless media. The technology has been developed under All India Coordinated Research Project on Plasticulture Engineering and Technology, operating in the department. Seasonal winter and summer vegetables can be grown successfully using this model, he added.

Dr Poonam A. Sachdev, Head-cum-Senior Vegetable Technologist, and Dr Sukhpreet Kaur, Assistant Vegetable Technologist, have developed the technology for frozen potato and other frozen vegetables which are near to fresh, convenient and viable as compared to fresh vegetables purchased during off season. Dr Sachdev said frozen vegetables do not require any further processing and can be used in various curried preparations and specialty products such as aloo tikki, harra bhara kabab and paranthas.

Dr Salesh Jindal, Assistant Vegetable Breeder, said, “CH-27 is a high yielding hybrid with multiple resistances to leaf curl virus, fruit rot and root knot nematodes. Its fruits are light green, long and medium in pungency. The hybrid is suitable for powder making and processing purposes.”

Dr R.K. Dhall, Associate Professor, Vegetable Science, said cucumber seedless variety ‘Punjab Kheera-1’ is the first seedless variety of PAU, which is suitable for poly-net house cultivation. Its fruits are parthenocarpic, dark green, seedless, bitter free, medium sized and do not require peeling. Its average yield is 304 q/acre and 370 q/acre in September and January sown crop, respectively, he added.

Dr G.S. Manes, Additional Director of Research (Farm Mechanization and Bio-energy); Dr A.S. Dhatt, Professor-cum-Head, Department of Vegetable Science; and Dr Angrej Singh, Assistant Agronomist, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, PAU, were also present on the occasion.