Digital University Kerala Vice Chancellor Saji Gopinath (third from left) and Central Tuber Crops Research Institute Director G. Byju (third from right) with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
The Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (ICAR-CTCRI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Digital University Kerala (DUK) to collaborate on agricultural technology research by setting up a Centre of Excellence in agriculture technologies.
The agreement paves the way for both institutions to collaborate and leverage their expertise to develop cutting-edge technologies to address the value-chain problems in the agriculture sector in the country. Other areas of collaboration will include joint research and development projects to develop sustainable entrepreneurship along with joint student research programmes.
“We believe this unique relation between a digital technology institution and a leading agriculture research organisation will help develop several innovative products to enhance digital enablement and transformation of agriculture,” DUK Vice-Chancellor Saji Gopinath was quoted as saying in a press release.
In research projects
CTCRI director G. Byju said that the institute is looking forward to having an effective collaboration in PhD programmes as well as international and national research projects to develop digital tools for sustainable natural resources management, disaster risk reduction, genomics as well as phenomic studies.
Research centre
“Tuber crops such as cassava, sweet potato, yam, elephant foot yam, taro among others are climate-resilient crops which have a great future. There are many researchable issues that will be addressed in collaboration with the DUK,” he said.
As part of the MoU, DUK will establish a research centre at the CTCRI and also various capacity building programmes in digital technologies for the manpower working in the agriculture sector.
