90th Annual General Meeting of ICAR Society held at NASC Complex

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi organized the 90th Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society at National Agricultural Science Centre Complex, New Delhi. 

In his address, Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare applauded the construction of Bharat Ratna C. Subramaniam Auditorium at NASC Complex, New Delhi. The Minister mentioned that the newly build auditorium having a capacity to accommodate 1,200 persons at a time is equipped with all the modern world-class facilities. He further discussed that the auditorium is one of its kinds of state of the arts. 

The Minister congratulated the ICAR for its 90th successful year. Accentuating the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to double up the farmers’ income by the Year 2022, the Minister also lauded the ICAR’s various steps in the process of realizing the vision. The Minister also applauded the conferring of Padma Sri Awards to 12 farmers including 2 women farmers by the government for their outstanding contributions in the field of agriculture and farming. 

Singh mentioned the government’s initiative to give Rs. 6,000 to small and marginal farmers’ families having a combined landholding and ownership up to 2 ha under the government’s “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi” scheme. 

Outlining the achievements made in the field of agricultural education, the Minister mentioned about the accreditation of about 60 Agricultural Universities by the National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board (NAEAB). He further elaborated that around 65 libraries of Agricultural Universities have been linked with KOHA. He also congratulated the ICAR team for bagging the Best Tableau - 2019 Award in the Republic Day - 2019. 

Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare mentioned about the country’s success in becoming self-sufficient and self-reliant in the direction of agriculture and farming. The Minister lauded the role of agricultural scientists in developing the farmer-friendly technologies and helping in empowering the poor farmers of the country to now become self-dependent.  Shekhawat highlighted various farmers-friendly steps that have been taken by the present government since its inception in the Year - 2014. 

He also urged the policy planners to work together so that the targeted goals and visions of the government for the betterment of farmers can be achieved and realized in their true sense. Shri Shekhawat mentioned that since a long time, the government’s vision used to be the production-centric. But, now, the government has come up with the vision to empower and make the farmers of the country to achieve a status of self-reliant in their societies. 

Smt. Krishna Raj, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare discussed the various farmers’ welfare schemes initiated by the central government. Citing the slogan of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan”, the Minister applauded the ICAR in developing the several farmers’ welfare technologies that are proving to be correct and efficient in their real terms. Smt. Krishna Raj applauded the rapid increase in women participation in the fields of agriculture and farming with the help of ICAR’s technologies.  She mentioned about the progress of Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the country that has succeeded in attracting considerably a huge number of youth and women to adopt an agricultural and farming field as a better career and livelihood option. 

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & DG (ICAR) presented the Year Report and briefed about the various achievements made in the Financial Year - 2018 to 2019. In his address, Dr. Mohapatra mentioned about the introduction of more than 400 crops varieties. He also highlighted the felicitation of stakeholders for the registration of 15 new breeds of livestock and poultry. He discussed the ICAR’s initiatives and advancements made in the agricultural technologies with the help of global networking. 

The DG mentioned about the recent ventures of ICAR in the forms of Memorandums of Understanding signed between ICAR and the various other Government Organizations namely Department of Biotechnology, CSIR ILRI, etc. He said that around 100 plus Mobile Apps have been developed for farmers’ outreach which depicted considerably good results in helping the farmers to avail the latest technologies in their agricultural fields. 

Dr. A.K. Singh, DDG (Agricultural Extension) & Director, IARI; Dr. Narendra Singh Rathore, DDG (Agricultural Education); Dr. A.K. Singh, DDG (Horticultural Science); Dr. Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science & Animal Science) along with several other State Ministers for Agriculture and various dignitaries of ICAR marked their presence during the meeting. 

The occasion marked the releasing ceremony of “Textbook of Basic Concepts of Weed Management” and “Textbook of Basic Concepts of Daily Microbiology”, etc., by the dignitaries.