ICAR- I.A.R.I. organizes “Innovations and Entrepreneurship for Rural Prosperity: Doubling Farmers’ Incomes by 2022” On 2nd November, 2018

The brain storming session is jointly organized by ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in collaboration with National Innovation Foundation-India & VibhaVani, New Delhi

Background

Doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022 is not only a challenge to the policy makers and development workers but also to the agricultural scientists as well. Millions of farmers are silently addressing livelihood constraints and exploring new opportunities by experimenting with unique combinations of indigenous knowledge and new ideas from a variety of sources for supporting food security of the country. Farmers through their experience have accumulated knowledge to adapt their farming systems to local conditions. However, this experience is often ignored in the academic literature on innovation, which tends to focus on innovation in new technologies and the applied sciences (Freeman, 1995) and (Lundvall, 2010). The main challenge of an approach to innovation based on the knowledge and experience of farmers is how to replicate that experience on a larger scale. Innovation in rural areas tends to be localized and therefore restricted by the specific social, economic and ecological context. It is desirable to blend the farmers’ innovations with the modern scientific knowledge and properly upscale them for the benefit of farming community at large. In this context a Brainstorming Session on “Innovations and Entrepreneurship for Rural Prosperity: Doubling Farmers’ Incomes by 2022” is being organized by the Institute in collaboration with National Innovation Foundation and Vibha Vani. The session is further aimed to formulate collaborative research projects and derive recommendations to policy makers regarding roadmap to result in doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. Venue The venue of the brainstorming session is at Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, IARI library Conference Hall on 2nd November, 2018. The venue is easily accessible and it is close to Directorate Office at IARI. Theme areas: In order to develop a pathway for doubling the farmers’ income from all perspectives, it was decided to include all agricultural and allied areas including post production activities. Thus the brainstorming session will focus on innovations in the following broad theme areas:  Crop / Horticulture / Bee Keeping· innovations  NRM/ Machinery innovations·  Post-harvest processing and marketing· innovations  Animal· & Fisheries based Innovations Participants The stakeholdersviz.; researchers, innovator farmers, marketing agencies, certification agencies, industrial houses and grassroots facilitation agencies working towards enhancing incomes of farmers may participate in this brainstorming session.

Boarding and Lodging

The boarding and lodging of the participants from outside Delhi will be arranged at IARI Guest house. About IARI, popularly known as Pusa Institute, is the country’s premier institution for research and higher education in the field of agricultural sciences. The primary mission of the institute is to explore new frontiers of science and knowledge, and develop human resources to provide leadership to the country in technology development and policy guidance. The Institute conducts basic and strategic research, serves as a centre for academic excellence, and provides national leadership in agricultural research, education and extension through development. The new crop varieties, hybrids and other technologies along with their associated management technologies developed by the Institute have brought out an unprecedented increase in agricultural production and productivity. Several initiatives have also been taken to meet the new challenges of climate change, shrinking natural resources, emerging pests and increasing demand for high quality farm produce. The transfer of technology has always received high priority of the Institute as the improved technologies need to be adopted by the farmers to enhance their productivity and income.

About NIF

The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India was set up in March 2000 with the assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It is India's national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators.NIF has also set up an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) with the help of, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, for product development and strengthening in-house research.NIF has also filed applications for 41 plant varieties developed by farmers at the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights Authority. Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) at NIF, with support from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has provided risk capital to projects in which are at different stages of incubation. It has also succeeded in commercializing products across countries in six continents, apart from being successful in materializing 98 cases of technology licensing, many with the support of Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN).NIF has proved that Indian innovators can match anyone in the world when it comes to solving problems creatively.

About VibhaVani

A development initiative of  Vijnana Bharati to form the largest people’s movement of science oriented social organizations and institutions for Nation building through “scientific interventions in social actions for Transforming India” by focusing in the area of Capacity building , Knowledge sharing, Advocacy and Liaison, Institutional tie-up & Project management. The vision is to improve the quality of life of ordinary citizen by creating an Integrated Sustainable Community Development Model (ISCD ) across the nation by executing SMART Projects. How to reach IARI is located about 8 km west of New Delhi railway station and 10 km from the Inter-State Bus Terminal and about 15 kms east of Indira Gandhi International Airport (T1). Pre-paid taxi/auto can be availed at railway/airport/bus stations to reach at IARI, Pusa Campus, New Delhi. The weather in Delhi during October November will be pleasant, with a maximum temperature of 25-30 degrees C and minimum temperature of 12-20 degrees C, with about 68% relative humidity.

For further information 
please contact:
Dr. J.P. Sharma, Joint Director (Extension & Research)
IARI Phone: 011-25842387 Email: jd_extn@iari.res.in