Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Affairs inaugurated the 3-day Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela today in New Delhi. Dr. Sanjay Garg, Additional Secretary (DARE) & Secretary (ICAR), Dr. Alka Arora, Additional Secretary (DARE) & Financial Advisor (ICAR), Dr. A.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI, and Dr. R N Padaria, Joint Director Extension were also present at the opening ceremony.
Tomar lit the lamp to officially start the mela. He spoke with entrepreneurs and scientists while touring live demos, thematic pandals, and start-up stalls. Dr. A.K. Singh, Director of ICAR-IARI, opened the event by extending a warm greeting to all of the dignitaries, guests, farmers, and audience members who were seated on the dais.
Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR, congratulated the nation's farmers for producing 325 million tonnes of agricultural products and ensuring global food security.
Tomar further presented the Lifetime Achievement Medal to Bhagwan Das and the IARI Fellow Farmer Prize for 2023 to five farmers including Shiv Prasad Sahani of Bihar, Vikas Choudhary of Haryana, Ashwini Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh, Surendra Awana of Rajasthan, and Bansh Gopal Singh of Uttar Pradesh.
In his remarks, agri minister commended the Pusa Institute for its work on behalf of farmers' welfare and urged them to make the most of technological advancements and science advances.
He said that this year's theme, 'Nutrition, Food and Environmental Security through Millets' or Shri Anna is very appropriate and relevant to both India and the rest of the world. By giving millets the name 'Shri-Ann' in this year's Amrit Kaal budget session, the government has done a fantastic job of recognising the significance of millets as well as their nutritional, economic, and environmental worth.
More than 500 startups are involved in the millet value chain. The Indian Millet Research Institute has fostered hundreds of startups as part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-RAFTAAR (RKVY-RAFTAAR). Such startups have received financial support to grow, he added.
This year's Kisan Mela features more than 200 booths, about 40 of which are devoted to farmer start-ups to encourage farmer business.
Farmers are flocking to the mela in big numbers to buy IARI-variety seeds. A technical session on the topic of 'Development of millet-based value chains' was held in the afternoon. Speakers included Drs. S. P. Singh, Raj Singh, Shalini Gaur, and Rajendra Chapke (IIMR, Hyderabad), who shared crucial information on millets, such as production technology, disease management, value addition, etc.
The Day 1 of mela was also broadcasted live on YouTube so that farmers from all over the nation can watch the event even if they were not there in person.
