Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the First Steering Committee Meeting of ’ICAR-Network Programme on Precision Agriculture (NePPA)’ organised by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
In his inaugural address, Dr Mohapatra appreciated the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and other Partner Institutes’ initiatives in bringing the NePPA to the present shape. The Director-General accentuated the combined efforts of multi-disciplinary investigators for successfully fulfilling the NePPA’s objectives which would cater to the farming community’s needs for ensuring food security.
Dr Mohapatra underlined the advantages of precision farming in improving the crop yield by 30 per cent, cost reduction by 40 per cent and risk reduction by 70 per cent. The need for reducing the yield gap of crops through the practice of innovative techniques of precision farming was also emphasised by the DG.
The Director-General released the ICAR-IIWM various publications during the occasion.
In his address, Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management & Agricultural Engineering), ICAR & Chairman, Steering Committee stressed the need for innovative methods of precision farming for enhancing the water and nutrient use efficiency, thereby, enhancing the crop yields.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr Atmaram Mishra, Director, ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar, Odisha outlined the main objectives of the Meeting. The senior officials of ICAR and its Institutes also participated in the Meeting.
About 60 participants including the Delegates from ICAR-NRRI, ICAR-CIFA, ICAR-CIWA, ICAR-FMD, ICAR-IIHR-CHES, ICAR-CTCRI, ICAR-DPR, ICAR-IIPR and Principal Investigators of NePPA from 15 ICAR Institutes participated in the meeting.
