Visit by Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner to ICRISAT opens opportunities for learning and knowledge exchange

Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT, welcomes Dr D Venkateshwaran, Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka (second from left) and the accompanying delegation to the ICRISAT campus in India taking the opportunity to highlight the Institute being awarded the Africa Food Prize 2021. Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

Dr Doraiswamy Venkateshwaran, Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner stationed in Chennai, recently visited the ICRISAT campus in Hyderabad to learn more about the Institute’s science-backed research for dryland agriculture.

Along with his team, he visited the genebank and toured the pigeonpea and finger millet field plots, where Dr Prakash Gangashetty and Dr Sobhan Sajja explained to him the research focus and various traits of hybrids and varieties developed by ICRISAT.

Dr Venkateshwaran expressed interest in collaborating to provide training opportunities for Sri Lankan scientists and agriculture extension personnel. The opportunities to conduct future visits by scientists, senior staff members of the Department of Agriculture, and the Minister of Agriculture of Sri Lanka were explored to share knowledge in which Sri Lanka could possibly adopt to establish a similar and modern research facility based on the ICRISAT model.

Dr D Venkateshwaran and his team visited ICRISAT on 20 September 2021.