ICAR-DOGR, Pune and Horticultural Science Division, ICAR, New Delhi organized the Brainstorming Session on “Hybrid Breeding in Onion: Innovations, Challenges and Future Prospects” in collaboration with NHRDF, New Delhi on 16.4.2025 at NASC Complex, New Delhi. The aim of this session was to strengthen the hybrid breeding program of onion in mission mode and to streamline the hybrid evaluation program under AINRPOG. Around 22 experts from ICAR institutes, SAU’s, Private Sector etc. attended the program. Dr Sudhakar Pandey, ADG (FVS & MP) (HS) ICAR, was the chief guest and chaired the session, Dr V Mahajan, Director, ICAR-DOGR & Dr AS Dhatt, Director Research, PAU were the Co-Chairmans and Dr Amar Jeet Gupta, Pr. Scientist (Veg. Sci.) was the Organizing Secretary.

 Program was started with welcome address by Dr V Mahajan and he highlighted the status of onion hybrids in India. Dr Sudhakar Pandey explained the importance of hybrid varieties in onion and the need for onion hybrids in India. He emphasized on the development of stable hybrid varieties by collaborative research, which are better than OPVs to increase the productivity of onion. Dr AS Dhatt expressed his views and gave information about hybrid breeding at PAU. He also emphasized on development of true inbreds through doubled haploids along with development of male sterile lines in locally adapted varieties suited to Indian conditions and use of molecular markers to characterize these lines.

The meeting started with a technical session consisting of presentations by scientists from ICAR-DOGR, IARI, IIHR, VPKAS, PAU and CITH regarding the current status and prospects of hybrid breeding in onion and way forward. Dr Anshul Kumar, representative from private sector also shared his feedback regarding present position of hybrids in Indian market and the improvement required.

It was followed by panel discussion among experts which was moderated by Dr PC Tripathi, Pr. Scientist (Hort), ICAR. In-depth discussions were held in this session including development of high yielding hybrid varieties and recommendations were made.

The major recommendations derived from the meeting were reviewed in the session on hybrid breeding and development of stable hybrids in onion. The outcome of the session was a set of recommendations which focused on promoting hybrid breeding program in collaboration with five institutes viz.; DOGR, IARI, IIHR, VPKAS and PAU for development of hybrids in onion and submitting a mega project to Corpus Fund and NASF. The event concluded with the vote of thanks presented by Dr AJ Gupta, Organizing Secretary.