National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad inaugurated the flagship program on 109th Foundation Course for Agricultural Research Service (FOCARS). The FOCARS is a three-month foundation program for newly recruited entry level scientists to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) probationers of the ICAR. This program comprising of different components to build the competencies of the young ARS Probationers who, belonging to various specialized disciplines of agricultural sciences will be placed in various research institutes of the ICAR at the end of this program.
Dr. S. Senthil Vinayagam and Dr. P.C. Meena are the Course Directors of this foundation program during 04January to 03April, 2019.
This flagship program was attended by 32 ARS probationers and inaugurated by Dr. J. C. Katyal, Former DDG (Education), ICAR, New Delhi. Delivering his inaugural address, he emphasized that the research output of the agricultural scientists should lead to the raising of farm income of the farmers, support the food security and to protect the environmental security. He also said the scientists should gain field experiences to understand the farmer’s issues and to develop the research areas accordingly. In his address, the Chief Guest applauded the efforts of institute for maintaining a clean campus and care for Swatch Bharat. Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, underlined the significance of the FOCARS and new initiatives designed in the foundations programs. He stressed that proactive involvement of young scientists is requiring to serve the farming community specially for the resource poor farmers. Dr. S.K. Soam, Joint Director in-Charge, spoke on the activities of the academy.