Hon'ble Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Govt. of India, Sh. Kailash Choudhary visited Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi on June 22, 2019 along with the Secretary DARE and Director General, ICAR, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra.
Firstly he visited the Centre for Protected Cultivation Technology and observed the sensor driven automated irrigation system, low-cost polyhouse, nursery raising technology and drip irrigation. He appreciated IARI's strive to produce quality planting materials for the benefit of farmers.
IARI's models of Integrated Farming System for rainfed condition (combination of protected cultivation, flower and mushroom) and pond-based system (fishery + dairy + horticulture + field crops + poultry + duckery) attracted his attention. He said such models will be useful for enhancing farmers' income. He also visited the Nanajee Deshmukh Plant Phenomics Centre to identify germplasm lines and genes for climate resilience.
After the visit, he conducted meeting with the Director, Joint Directors, Heads of Divisions and Senior Scientists of the Institute. Deliberations were made to identify the technologies from the ICAR system as well as from the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, which could raise the income of farmers. Sh. Choudhary stressed ensuring quality seeds, cold storage facilities, processing, and marketing. During the deliberations, the suggestions were made by the scientists for enhancing the income of farmers, which included availability of quality seeds of improved varieties, nutrition-based agriculture, use of technologies for cost reduction, use of Pusa Decomposer for agricultural waste management, linking of production with consumption, eliminating middle-men through direct marketing, promotion of farmer producer companies, promotion of value addition and delineating the critical role of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
Secretary DARE & Director General, ICAR, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra suggested to bring about a synthesis of the suggestions in the form of a Concept Note within a week so that further strategy could be made. He also highlighted the need for the development of crop plan for the whole country in order to enhance the profitability of the farmers. He also emphasized upon devising approaches for effective and faster dissemination of IARI technologies.
Dr. A.K. Singh, Director, IARI stressed that IARI's technologies have been useful at the national level. Improved varieties of IARI have been playing a critical role in enhancing the productivity and profitability of farmers. Innovative extension approaches of IARI such as IARI-SAUs Partnership, IARI-Voluntary Organizations Partnership, IARI-Post Office Linkage have been playing a pivotal role in the dissemination of IARI technologies and capacity building of farmers.
Sh. Choudhary said that all wings of the Ministry should work in unison to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income.
