Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the Administrative Building of ICAR-ATARI, Umiam. In his inaugural address, Dr. Mohapatra urged the KVKs to devote their energy to double the farmers’ income in at least two villages per district by 2022 in convergence mode with the line departs and other Institutes of NARS system.
Dr. A. K. Singh, DDG (Ag. Extn) highlighted the importance of KVKs in the national scenario. Dr. Singh assured support for the KVKs to successfully implement various projects like Farmer FIRST Program, ARYA, NARI, KSHAMTA etc. He also complemented the Director ICAR-ATARI, Umiam and his team for catering the needs of farmers in North-eastern region of India.
Dr. K. M. Bujarbaruah, Vice Chancellor, Assam Agricultural University, on this occasion, lauded the efforts of KVKs to transfer the technologies to farmers and also proposed to promote agripreneurship development in the region. He stressed on strengthening of KVKs with additional facilities and support to fulfil the expectations of the stakeholders.
Prof. M. Premjit Singh, Vice Chancellor, Central Agricultural University, congratulated the team of ICAR-ATARI and KVKs for promoting livelihood security among weaker sections. He highlighted the significant contribution of KVKs in the region in empowering farmers by citing the example of award winning women farmer from Manipur at national level.
Earlier, in his welcome address Dr. Bidyut C. Deka, Director ICAR-ATARI, Umiam briefed about the achievement of the KVKs in last two years.
On this occasion various publications of ICAR-ATARI were also released by the dignitaries. The inauguration of the administrative building was held in the side lines of valedictory function of Annual Zonal Workshop of KVKS under zone-VII, Umiam held during May 30 to June 01, 2019 with the participation of 43 KVKs.
