College- CMR National PU College, ITPL, Bangalore

Students of II PUC visited the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore on 18 th June as a part of foldscope project.

The University Campus is a wonderful amalgamation of green cover and modern amenities and facilities. We visited the Department of Horticulture where we were explained the process of grafting and demonstrated with grafting in Mango varieties to obtain desired hybrids. We also visited their botanical garden which houses numerous fruit and flowering plants. We observed grafts of tamarind, guava, jamun and many more trees like grape fruit, Avocado, Mango, papaya, beans to name a few.

Students collected samples of Mosses, different grass varieties, plant parts and insects from the campus to study using foldscopes.

We also visited the Tissue culture laboratory which houses sophisticated instruments for commercial production of plants using tissue culture technique. We were shown many plants growing from different callus materials in tissue culture media at different stages of life cycle.

It was a wonderful and enriching experience as students interacted with experts in these fields and could understand how such hybridization processes can practically revolutionize the Agricultural practices in our country.