SKUAST-K on Friday said Patent office of government of India has granted two patents to the varsity for the innovative technologies.
A statement said a patent for the technique “Identification of Cashmere (Pashmina) fibre from processed textile products by PCR-based technique” has been granted jointly to CSWRI, Avikanagar and SKUAST-Kashmir for the work carried out under World Bank-funded ICAR, NAIP project entitled “A Value Chain on Enhanced Productivity and Profitability of Pashmina Fibre”.
The statement said the technique is related to the extraction of high quality DNA from textile and thereafter identification of species specific goat and sheep origin fibers by qualitative PCR based method.
The statement said the other patent on “Mistletoe eradicator,” a very simple, cheap, handy and easy to use mechanical device that can prune the mistletoe weed from the walnut tree has been granted to SKUAST-Kashmir.
It said Mistletoe, a parasitic plant growing on trees of horticultural and forest importance throughout the world, sends its root like structures into tree branches and robs the tree of its water, minerals and nutrients and can even kill the tree.
The statement said ‘Mistletoe Eradicator’ prunes the mistletoe weed from the tree and simultaneously pastes weedicides to the cut end of the mistletoe, thus killing the stump and prevents its regeneration in the next season.
Prof Nazeer Ahmed, Vice Chancellor congratulated the scientists and the staff especially Prof Sarfaraz A. Wani and Dr Khursheed A Bhat, the lead scientists for getting the patents.
He urged upon other fellow scientists of the University to dwell on such innovative and applied research for benefit of the farming community and society in general.