Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico on 24.05.2023 for facilitating Postgraduate Students’ Research. CIMMYT is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems works with its partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. Whereas, the TNAU is mandated to teaching, research and extension in the various areas of Agriculture in the state of Tamil Nadu. Both the parties desired to join hands mutually for academic collaborations.
Dr. N. Senthil, Dean (SPGS), TNAU, Coimbatore welcomed the gathering and detailed the significance of this particular meeting that ‘TNAU and CIMMYT desire to establish collaborative programmes in Molecular breeding programme, Phenotyping services, Leveraging germplasm and providing DH services to Asian Maize Breeding Programmeto advance scientific knowledge, capacity building, research projects and multi-year product development subject to developing specific research projects to enable the introduction of high-performing crops in Indian markets’.
The signing authorities, Dr.V.Geethalakshmi, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore and Dr.B.M.Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT's Global Maize Program and OneCGIAR Global Maize Breeding Lead signed the agreement where they remarked about the essentiality of this academic collaboration and the way forward.
The delegates from both the parties, Dr.R.TamizhVendan, Registrar, Dr.N. VenkatesaPalanichamy, Dean (Agriculture), Dr.A.Raviraj, Dean (Agricultural Engineering), Dr.V.Balasubramani, Controller of Examinations, Dr.R.Ravikesavan, Director (Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics), Dr.M.Shanthi, Director (Centre for Plant Protection Studies), Dr.R.Umarani, Director (Seed Centre), Dr.E.Somasundaram, Director (Agribusiness Development) from TNAU, Coimbatore and Dr.M.Govindaraj from International Center for Tropical Agriculture attended the signing ceremony and graced the occasion.