Online Annual Zonal Workshop of 81 KVKs of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa organized
10 - 12 July, 2020, Pune
The ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra organized three-day “Online Annual Zonal Workshop of 81 KVKs of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa” from 10th to 12th July, 2020.
Applauding the KVKs’ efforts, the Chief Guest, Shri Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare stressed on the crucial role of the entire NARS and KVKs system for doubling the farmers’ income by 2022. The Minister iterated on the need for transforming the agriculture sector into business mode. He also urged for popularizing the Farmers’ Producers’ Organizations (FPOs) for becoming self-depend and harnessing the strength of working together. Shri Choudhary stressed on revolutionizing the agricultural sector through value-addition, post-harvest technologies, value-chain management, producing exporting quality products for achieving the targets of “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”. For this, he urged the KVKs to undertake need-based enterprises for empowering the farming communities across the nation.
Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) applauded the advisories issued by the Krishi Vigyan Kendras during the COVID-19 crisis. Highlighting about the increase in demand of the KVKs due to their more visibility in the Districts, Dr. Mohapatra emphasized on doing proper analysis of the identified villages towards doubling the farmers’ income based on their benchmark surveys. He also urged the State Government to follow the doubling the farmers’ strategy. The Director General stressed on micro irrigation, onion, garlic, castor, seed spices, horticultural crops, post-harvest processing, multi-layering cropping and value-addition that can help in enhancing the farmers’ income.
Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension), ICAR highlighted the need of speciality agriculture, local marketing mechanism of fruits and vegetables, AMUL based cooperatives, IFS models in scarce condition, etc. He also appreciated the culture of organizing the farmers in Maharashtra through commodity-based FPOs/FPCs. Dr. Singh urged the KVKs to give thrust on developing nutritional gardens at KVKs and villages, involving Anganwadi workers for making Kuposhan Mukta Villages.
Dr. K.P. Viswanatha, Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri stressed on undertaking the futuristic challenges along with infrastructure at the KVKs. He suggested the utilization of the SREP for understanding the priorities and implementing farm diversification including livestock components for enhancing the farmers’ income.
In the Plenary Session, Dr. V.M. Bhale, Vice-Chancellor, PDKV, Akola stressed on crop planning at the District level, facilitating FPOs, bio-agents production units and marketing.
Dr. V.P. Chahal, ADG (Agricultural Extension), ICAR highlighted the need to strengthen convergence with other agencies to get financial support, constitute a team of excellence at Directorate of Extension Education level, production of organic inputs.
Shri Atul Jain, Member, NITI Aayog Standing Committee on CSOs stressed on documenting the farmers’ wisdom, folk songs, proverbs and beliefs.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Lakhan Singh, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Pune, Maharashtra briefed about the Zone’s achievements and highlighted the protected cultivation, crop diversification through sericulture, bee keeping, bamboo cultivation, successful cases of agri-entrepreneurs, innovative extension approaches followed by the farmers.
The senior officials of ICAR Institutes and Vice-Chancellors of State Agricultural Universities urged for making the instructional farm of the KVK as technology hub for educating the different stakeholders.
(Source: ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra)
