The weekly review meeting for Smart Tribal Farming was conducted on 24 January 2022, chaired by Prof Moni Madaswamy, Professor Emeritus, and Chairman CAIRS & CADMS, Shobhit Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut & Former Director of NIC.
Prof. Moni is working on the operationalization of tribal smart farming in a cluster of 10 villages in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu to strengthen the global value chain.
Present at the meeting were M. Kasthuri, Former Senior Director (Technical), NIC Kerala State Centre, National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Thiruvananthapuram, Meera Raghavendra, Director, WINS (WOMEN’S INITIATIVES), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, Anchal Sritosh, SMART Tribal Farming Project (Pilot) Coordinator, Odisha T. K. Omana, Director, RASTA, Wayanad, Kerala, and SMART Tribal Farming Project (Pilot) Coordinator, Kerala V. N. Shukla, SMART Tribal Farming Project (Pilot) Coordinator, Chhattisgarh Dr. Sreekala Nair, Director, Nature Science Foundation, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu Sanjaya Choudhary, Secretary (Indralok) and Project Coordinator, Smart Hill Agriculture – Javadhu Hills, Prasenjit Laha, CEO, Efrontis Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hooghly, Kolkata (India) and Arvind Yadav, CEO, Agriboz (Agriculture Trade Network), Delhi and M C Dominic, founder and Editor in Chief of Krishi Jagran, and Agriculture World.
Speaking at the meeting Prof. Moni overviewed the points from the last meeting and was impressed by the offerings of Phani of Bhu Seva Society (Hyderabad) on supply of Drumstick Seeds - 10 plants or more to group members in 10 villages. He said, "It requires an Action Plan for popularizing among the Tribal Communities of the Hill. The other related point “funding and support clarity is pretty important for smooth sailing” requires further deliberation among the Project Stakeholders."
During the meeting it was informed that in consultation with the farmers, a Crop Calendar, useful for better annual planning and coordination will be launched very soon.
Prof. Moni appreciated the developments that are taking place in this short duration under the guidance of Thiru Sanjaya and said that it would be required to brief the District Administration and request the required developmental support.
Speaking at the meeting, MC Dominic said, "We as an Agri media house look for opportunities to make the voices of tribal farmers and community heard and create an impact for the tribal people. Farmer the brand and Farmer the journalist are our initiatives that are helping farmers from every corner of the world come forward and share their stories. We need to work together in order to reach the goal."
He further stated, " Krishi Jagran strives to encourage affirmative practices by featuring success stories of farmers. The exclusive interviews with eminent personalities from agricultural backgrounds portray the reality, problems, and solutions associated with the sector, and are also published."
Dominic said that he would support the various initiatives of the Shobhit University in the operationalization of recommendations of the DFI-2022 Committee relating to “Digital Technology in Agriculture”, through its online portals and magazines, Krishi Jagran and Agriculture World.
