The first technical session was chaired by Dayashankar Singh, Head, Farmers Producers Organisation Association of Uttar Pradesh and Co-chaired by Dr Neeru Bhushan, ADG, IPM&TM, ICAR, New Delhi. Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the Chairman, Co-chairman and panellist of the session and requested to panellists to share their experiences of start-ups with farmers.
Rahul Dhingra, Co-founder, F2DF, Avinash Shukla, Founder of Ramraj Services Pvt. Ltd. and Sudhir Ingle, Director, Maharashtra FPC, Pune shared their experiences, how the farmers can make a strong FPO to get better price of their produce.
The second session was chaired by Dr. K. V. Prabhu, Former Chairperson, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, Government of India, New Delhi, B. S Cheema, Kawal Singh Chauhan and Sushma Singh were the special invitees of the session. Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the chairman and special invitees of the session. Fellow and Innovative Farmers Awardees of Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela 2023 shared their experience about innovative ideas and technologies for enhancing farmers’ income.
The closing ceremony of mela started at 2:00 pm. Kailash Chaudhary, State Agriculture Minister, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India was the chief guest of the event. Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the chief guest and other dignitaries. 6 Fellow farmers and 42 Innovative farmers with the ‘IARI Innovative Farmer Award' were felicitated including women farmers.
Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI congratulated all the awardee farmers and also thanked them for their contributions towards agricultural development and Nutritional, Food & Environmental security in the country. Dr Himashu Pathak, Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR delivered the valedictory address and congratulated all the awardee farmers by Pusa Institute and said that these farmers are inspiration to us and requested them to share their journey and motivate the fallow farmers present at the fair.
He congratulated farmers and scientists for development of climate resilient crop varieties and technologies for enhancing Nutritional, Food and Environmental security. He also appreciated the role of Pusa Institute for providing good quality and high yielding crop varieties across the country and congratulated for grand success Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023.
Kailash Chaudhary, State Agriculture Minister, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India emphasized on the need to work for the development of varieties of millets for nutritional security. He asked farmers not to be impatient and the government is with them. "The government and scientists will support you from time to time with new technologies," he added.
He reiterated the central role of new and innovative farm technologies food and environmental security. He said modern technologies and crop varieties must reach to the farmers without any time lag and must be demonstrated on farmers’ fields for winning the confidence of farmers. Chaudhary said the government is working towards increasing the usage of technology at the hands of the farmers under various schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Soil Health Card Scheme, Organic Agriculture and Traditional Agriculture Development Scheme (Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana), Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi in the light of benefiting the small and marginal farmers.
Large number of farmers from across the country visited the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023 and benefited from live demonstration of climate resilient varieties of wheat, mustard, lentil, chickpea, vegetables, flowers and fruit crops and also gained useful and advance knowledge of integrated farming system model.
Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, IARI complimented Scientists and other staff of the institute for the grand success of Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023 and also appreciated farmers for their keen interest in participation of mela. Dr. Rabindra Nath Padaria, Joint Director (Extension), Dr. JPS Dabaas, In-charge, CATAT, ICAR-IARI and other dignitaries were also present during the valedictory ceremony.
The mega event was organized by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Several institutes of ICAR across the country participated and special exhibitions on millets (Sree Anna), farmer-friendly technologies, innovations and products were displayed.
