Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore Centre has been conferred with the outstanding ICAR-AICRP (Indian Council for Agricultural Research-All India Coordinated Research Project) Micronutrients Centre Award.

The centre was chosen among the 22 centres of ICAR – All India Coordinated Micro, Secondary and Pollutant elements in Soils and Plants and award was presented at the recently held 28th National workshop of ICAR- AICRP Schemes at Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal.

The Coimbatore centre has been recognized for its excellence in micronutrient research and overall performance in the field of delineating the micro and secondary nutrients status in the soils of Tamil Nadu, fixing critical limits to make fertilizer recommendations, developing management strategies to increase the crop yield and soil health, a TNAU release said today.

The studies on Zn nutrition in soil- plant – animal continuum further strengthened the activities of the centre.
The team has also demonstrated the impact of various micronutrient management strategies in the farmer’s holdings and also created considerable awareness among them through field days, interaction meetings and spot advices, it said.

The centre has also released publications for the benefit of farmers in Tamil and developed micro-nutrient mixtures specifically for 11 major crops.

Dr. T. Chitdeshwari, Professor, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of TNAU, Coimbatore, was awarded the S N Ranade Memorial Award for excellence in micro-nutrients research in the field of agriculture on the occasion.

A silver medal and a certificate were given to the scientist for her contribution in diagnosing and management of micro-nutrient deficiencies in soils and crops, investigating the dynamics of micro-nutrients in soil ecosystem, besides developing strategies to improve the crop yield and maintain soil health.

The team was led by Chitdeshwari with the support of Dr. D. Jegadeeswari and Dr. P. Malathi, Assistant Professors in the department.