Narmadapuram (Madhya Pradesh): Zonal Agricultural Research Station at Pawarkheda in Narmadapuram has grown 56 varieties of wheat and four varieties of sugarcane. Besides, there are also new varieties of potato, onion, mustard, tomato and chilli.
Collector Sonia Meena visited the research station and the agriculture college to inspect a new variety of gram and that of mustard. She was told that the harvester is used to cut off gram crops.
Anvesh Chatterjee, scientist at the research station, said the seeds were brought from the Chambal area; for, Til (sesame) was to be grown.
Mustard was to be grown in ten hectares, Chatterjee said.
The research station was set up in 1903 to develop new varieties of wheat. Afterwards, the research station decided to include some crops for research. The scientists at the research station are working on wheat, sugarcane, water management and integrated farming system (IFS).
There are 218 students in the agriculture college set up in 2016-17. Various types of crops are grown there. Scientists said the seeds of two different types of crops were bred at the farm.
High-breed crops kept stable for seven years are adopted after testing, scientists said. Meena also inspected sugarcane crops. She was informed of three types of sugarcane crop.
The first crop was grown in 1986, the second one in 1995 and the third one in 2016. Besides Chatterjee, SK Pandey, deputy director (agriculture) R Hedau, chief executive officer Hemant Sutrakar and Tehsildar Divyanshu Namdev were present during the inspection.
