The Indian Council for Agricultural Research-Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (ICAR-IIHR) has collaborated with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) to set up an advanced seed testing centre. The new facility at IIHR campus in Bengaluru, which was inaugurated on 30 August, 2023 will take IIHR's seed processing capacity to around 100 tpa from the current 40 tpa.

The new HAL-ICAR-IIHR seed production centre will augment the existing processing infrastructure for timely processing of seeds. Involving considerable automation along with lowering labour dependency, it would lead to an overall cost-effective and efficient process.

The new facility will house an automated seed coating unit, seed dryer and colour sorters, automatic pouch filling machines among others. It will enhance the availability of large quantity of quality seeds of ICAR-IIHR bred vegetable and flower crop varieties/hybrids.  

HAL has provided funding support for the new seed processing unit under its CSR mandate.

Further, ICAR will collaborate with the private sector and subsequently, work on joint projects in the areas of research, education and extension projects.