The 2-story Silver Jubilee Block has been constructed for expanding laboratory space at PD on Poultry with a total floor space of 12000 SFT. The majestic building has been built with state of the art design for providing good ventilation and maximum space utility. It has 6 labs, 12 sitting rooms and a seminar room, besides common facilities. One of the labs at prominent location has been earmarked for Central Instrumentation Facility. The total cost of the building was Rs. 3.14 crores. Dr. Ayyappan appreciated the design of the building and congratulated the institute for creating such a nice facility. Prior to this, Dr. Ayyappan also paid a quick visit to the hatchery, farm and also the recently acquired site for creating Germplasm Supply Unit in the SVVU campus.
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Following inauguration of the Silver Jubilee Block, a meeting was organized. Dr. R.N. Chatterjee, Acting PD, PDP welcomed the dignitaries and gave a brief account of profile and salient achievements of PDP during the past 25 years since its establishment in 1988. He specially mentioned the contributions of PDP in promoting rural poultry production through the most popular varieties developed by the institute, i.e. Vanaraja and Gramapriya, which have been in great demand across the country including NEH, Jammu & Kashmir and A & N islands. Prof. K.M.L.Pathak, DDG (AS) expressed satisfaction of the work progress at the institute and indicated future thrust areas of research for the institute.
Dr. S. Ayyappan lauded the contributions of PDP in improving livelihood status of rural and tribal people through backyard poultry production and emphasized that PDP is one of the few institutes of ICAR that have excelled in supplying improved germplasm to farmers of the country. Dr. Ayyappan suggested to strengthen research in consortia mode employing multi-disciplinary approach involving the local SAUs, ICAR institutes and other line departments, particularly on food platform for effectively tapping the health benefits of cereals and value added products. He also suggested to formulate strategy for meeting requirements of agriculture sector during exigencies. Dr. V. Prabhakar Rao, VC, SVVU; Dr. A. Padma Raju, VC, ANGRAU and Dr. S.L. Goswami, Director, NAARM assured all the cooperation and support in addressing the issues of poultry and allied sectors. The meeting ended with vote of thanks.
