Patna: The research council of Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (RPCAU) on Wednesday approved two high-yielding varieties of maize hybrids, namely, Rajendra Hybrid Makka-5 and Rajendra Hybrid Makka-6, for release. The council also endorsed several digital innovations aimed at reducing post-harvest losses and increasing farmers’ income.The recommendations of the research council regarding release of new varieties and other technological innovations were made at the three-day meeting of the research council held at Pusa under the chairmanship of vice-chancellor (VC) P S Pandey. “Both these varieties can be used to boost production of the food grain and also for industrial purposes like production of ethanol,” he said.Another major highlight of the meeting was the presentation of an innovative IoT (Internet of Things)-based real-time storage monitoring system for wheat. The sensor-based system developed by Vishal Kumar, a teacher of the food processing and engineering department, will continuously monitor temperature, moisture and grain quality, helping to significantly reduce storage losses.The council also endorsed the scale calculator, a computation tool for psychometric analysis for use in socio-economic agricultural research. This tool was developed by S P Lal.Around 200 research proposals were approved at the meeting. These proposals related to AI-based crop yield and price forecasting, remote sensing for soil and drought monitoring, natural farming protocols, bioremediation of arsenic, and sustainable aquaculture models. The council also reviewed 15 all-India coordinated research projects being run on rice, maize, millets, pulses, agroforestry, mushrooms and spices.
