Discussions were held on the great potential of jute in raising the economy of the country
The ICAR-Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata recently organised a two-day programme for mega campaign on natural and organic farming in jute-based cropping system among the farmers of major jute growing districts of West Bengal.
The Chief Guest, Dhrubajyoti De, Joint Commissioner (HQ), Barrackpore, Kolkata underlined the great potential of jute in raising the economy of the country. De stressed on considering the soil and water conservation while adopting the modern methods of farming. The role of conservation of nature, soil and water in making the agriculture profitable and sustainable was also highlighted.
Delivering the inaugural address, Dr Gouranga Kar, Director, ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackpore accentuated on taking the profitable farming to solve the challenges of unemployment and women empowerment into account while implementing natural and organic farming in the farmers’ fields.
The programme was aimed at promoting the knowledge of natural and organic farming in the production of the good quality organic jute fibre suitable for diversified use and export.
The workshop registered participation by 100 farmers, farm women and scientists of the ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackpore.
Discussions were held on the implementation of the New Education Policy – 2022 in the agricultural education arena
“Our concerted efforts should be to make the self-dependent agricultural sector along with Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. This will help to strengthen the country’s economy,” said Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. Tomar was addressing the inaugural session of the ‘Annual Conference of Vice-Chancellors of State Agricultural Universities & Directors of ICAR Institutes – 2022’ organised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex, New Delhi.
He also underlined the implementation of the New Education Policy – 2022 in the agricultural education arena.
Tomar stressed providing the farmers with quality education to help them withstand the recent competitive world. The need for linking and attracting the youths to the agricultural sector was also emphasised in the Union Minister’s address. He asserted the Central Government’s aim and vision to reduce the farmers’ expenditure and provide them with prompt results. The Union Minister advised the council to have quality interactions with the retired/former staff members of the council that will benefit the young task force in their research. The importance of organic products in agricultural exports was underlined by him.
Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying emphasised attracting and linking the youths with the agricultural sector. The Union Minister applauded the ICAR’s pivotal role in enhancing the agricultural and allied sciences production of the country.
Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare stressed the need for promoting precision farming to a large extent. He urged the Council for enhancing the research in the arena of horticultural sciences. ‘Utilising the new Education Policy – 2020, the agricultural students can become a role model for the others,” said Choudhary. The minister accentuated providing vocational education to the farmers’ children on a priority basis.
Shobha Karandlaje, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare also marked her presence as the Guest of Honor during the occasion.
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) asserted the Council’s commitment to providing quality agricultural and allied sciences services to the nation. The DG stated that the Council has enabled the unique management of Universities to decide the pathways for a brighter future. The effective implementation of the New Education Policy – 2020 by the ICAR was underlined by Dr Mohapatra. The need for developing such digital platforms that can enable the farmers to get in touch with the ICAR Institutes effectively was highlighted in the Director General’s address.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Dr RC Agrawal, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education), ICAR highlighted the various achievements made by the Agricultural Education Division of the Council. The dignitaries also released the various ICAR Publications and Products on the occasion.
The Vice-Chancellors of State Agricultural Universities; Deputy Directors General of ICAR; Senior Officials of ICAR and NAHEP along with the Heads of Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Agricultural Scientists participated in the conference.
The MoU is aimed at promoting Inter-Institutional Collaborative Research and academic engagements in the areas of common causes
The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
The MoU is aimed at promoting Inter-Institutional Collaborative Research and academic engagements in the areas of common causes. Dr M Madhu, Director, ICAR-IISWC, Dehradun and Prof (Dr) Sangeeta Shukla, Vice-Chancellor, CCSU, Meerut signed the MoU on the behalf of their respective organisations.
Dr Madhu outlined the main objective of the MoU to stimulate and facilitate collaboration and promote the mutually interested common programmes that help advance the interests of scientific studies and societal development. He stressed that the national and international level collaborative programmes and engagements for enhanced outreach and awareness of technological outcomes and success stories would be aimed through the MoU.
Dr Sangeeta Shukla urged for active collaborations in the diverse fields of science and technologies, especially, between the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Agriculture of the CCSU, Meerut and ICAR-IISWC, Dehradun.
Smallholder farmers in India can be a significant contributor in our sustainability journey. Technology and innovation have always been important for sustainable farming, from the high yielding varieties of green revolution to more recent adoption of Bt cotton. With these and other technologies like agronomic practices, combined with synthetic inputs, we saw a steady increase in crop productivity over the last decades. In recent years, this increase in crop productivity has plateaued and some of these practices have also left a large environmental footprint. Coupled with the water crisis and the climate crisis we find ourselves in, our smallholder farmers will be disproportionately affected by adverse climate events with respect to productivity and their livelihood at large. By Usha Barwale Zehr, Vikas Chandak and Umang Agrawal, Grow Indigo
Sustainable Agriculture is actually a cost effective and scalable solution to some of these challenges and additionally can offer a new source of income, and more resilience to adverse climate events.
At Grow Indigo (a partnership between Mahyco and Indigo Ag), we are focused on bringing technologies that are sustainable in these smallholder agri systems. The policies of Government of India further supports some of these initiatives like the inclusion of bio-stimulants with synthetic fertilisers or other chemicals to ensure low chemical residue harvest. Recent advances in the microbial input space are providing a promising alternative to the synthetic solutions which have been historically available. Some examples include,use of biofertiliser that are specially formulated to provide maximum benefit for a given crop (Prerak soya, cotton, pulses, wheat and other seed treatments), Soil application formulations like Oorjit Granule and Growrrhizae, biopesticides like Colossal and Bhujbal, foliar nitrogen fixers, plant growth promoting microbes and endophytes which provide enhanced Nutrient Use Efficiency, Water Use Efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance to various crops. Our partner, Indigo Ag has focused on endophytes, with a library of more than 40,000 endophytes and seeds treated with this class of treatments, providing stress tolerance be it drought, water use and other stresses. The smallholder farmers have become more and more aware about the benefits of the consortia treatments that Grow Indigo offers to address various challenges faced by them. With increasing use of these innovative inputs, the impact on soils, water quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission will be improved leading to an overall positive impact on agriculture while not impacting the productivity of the crop negatively.
Climate change has posed a significant threat to agri-food systems, especially in highly vulnerable smallholder farming regions like India. While agriculture contributes about 16 per cent of gross GHG emissions in India, it is also a substantial sink for mitigating climate change through regenerative farming practices. Practices like direct dry seeding of rice, reduced tillage, nutrient management and more have the potential to reduce the GHG emissions in addition to improving soil organic carbon, thus making agriculture the most efficient and scalable solution in addressing climate change. In smallholder farming systems, the beneficial effects of coupling these practices with voluntary carbon markets also provides an opportunity for farmer income enhancement.
Much work has been done on conservation agricultural practices in different agro ecosystems. However, the regenerative agricultural practices today are implemented only by a small percentage of farmers. These practices include, minimal tillage, cover cropping, crop diversification, use of biofertilisers, and perennial cropping, among others, which increase soil’s carbon content, water permeability, and water retention, which also increase a crop’s ability to withstand drought, flooding and temperature stresses. As per expert estimates, regenerative farming practices, combined with increased penetration of new technologies, have the potential to return the carbon levels in agricultural soils from an average of ~0.5 per cent back to ~1.5 per cent.
To catalyse the adoption of regenerative agriculture, Grow Indigo has launched a project in Punjab and Haryana which enrolls farmers in a carbon farming programme, ultimately allowing them to participate in a voluntary carbon marketplace. The monetary incentive from this programme will motivate the farmers to implement regenerative farming practices. Use of digital agronomy tools and satellite imagery analysis to measure and verify soil carbon sequestration and on-farm GHG emission levels will be essential for scaling such projects.
The objective is to pay farmers for increasing the carbon content of their soil and reducing overall GHG emissions. We are working with our partners to identify and implement regenerative practice changes, and measure the impact of those practices in terms of tonnes of carbon sequestered or GHG emission reductions. Once the impact has been verified, farmers are paid based on the amount of Carbon sequestration/GHG reduction after the carbon credits are issued and traded. Carbon credit, which is one tonne CO2 equivalent of GHG emission reduced or carbon stored in the soil, can be thought of as a data product, where the veracity, transparency, and traceability of the data has a direct implication on the quality of the carbon credit. Quality of the carbon credit is critical to get the right price for the carbon credit generated, and monitoring and verification at scale is important to make the system work in smallholder systems. Once the farmers register in the programme and continue to implement the regenerative agri practices, they will be eligible to receive payment for carbon credits generated for 20 years, conditional upon following these climate-smart practices in future.
Grow Indigo has already registered with Verra (a global leader in Carbon credit verification) and has initiated a project to start the carbon credit generation activities. With the project, Grow Indigo is enrolling farmers in the programme in partnership with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to promote practices which enhance sustainability and regenerative agriculture.
This programme creates an additional income avenue for the farmers, and contributes positively in our efforts for sustainability in the long run.
Agriculture digitisation is also paving the way for knowledge dissemination and sharing. Farmer advisories which are on mobile platforms are changing how farmers access information and such information is becoming available almost in real time. These digital technologies are also strengthening data which is being deployed to better design and implement timely and actionable advisories related to agronomy and agriculture marketing.
These are just a handful of examples of how technologies will shape the future of agriculture in the near term and get us closer to our sustainability goals. What we do today determines what the future will look like, and agriculture will be a positive contributor if we strengthen the above sustainability practices.
The key objective of the unit is to develop a national One Health roadmap based on the learnings of the pilot project implementation
The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD), Government of India has launched a pilot project in the state of Uttarakhand to implement the One Health Framework by One Health Support Unit. The key objective of the unit is to develop a national One Health roadmap based on the learnings of the pilot project implementation.
The inter-ministerial One Health committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has been established to lead the implementation of the One Health Support Unit. A Project Steering Committee (PSC) is constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary (AHD), GoI involving representatives from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, ICAR, civil societies, international development organisations and field practitioners.
Based on the recommendations of PSC, state and district level one health committees need to be constituted by involving competent authorities from health, animal husbandry and environment ministries. Some of the key activities to be undertaken as part of the pilot project include institutionalising the mechanism for the data collection on disease outbreaks, prevalence, management, and development of targeted surveillance plan, integrating the network of laboratories, developing and implementing communication strategy across sectors and integration of the data with the digital architecture of the National Digital Livestock Mission.
The pilot project in Uttarakhand was launched by Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India in the presence of Dr Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Government of India, Alkesh Wadhwani, Director, Poverty Alleviation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation India, Dr R Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of Uttarakhand, Shri Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Secretary, Department of Medical, Health and Family Welfare Government of Uttarakhand, Ranjan Kumar Mishra, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife Uttarakhand Forest Department, Government of Uttarakhand and Dr Prem Kumar, Director, Department of Animal Husbandry Government of Uttarakhand among other key stakeholders.
Ablation is the removal of male and female inflorescences and fruit bunches produced during the juvenile period of oil palm
The oil palm ablatool developed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh has been granted the Patent (No. – 393982).
Ablation is the removal of male and female inflorescences and fruit bunches produced during the juvenile period of oil palm (1 to 3 Years). It improves the vegetative growth of the palm by retaining the nutrients which are supposed to be used by the developing inflorescences or fruit bunches. It also improves the drought-resistance capacity of young palms by improving the shoot and root growth, especially, in the low production areas where dry conditions exist.
The ablation tool developed by the institute consists of a long handle of GI Pipe of 5 Ft length. On one end of the pipe, a ‘U’ shaped holder is welded. A sharp-pointed nail is welded at the Centre of the ‘U’ holder.
The operator has to locate the unopened inflorescence to be removed and pushes the ‘U’ holder into the inflorescence. In this process, the sharp needle pierces into the inflorescence and with a small push, the inflorescence gets broken and is hooked like a fish.
The tool can be operated without drudgery at an angle of 680 to the ground level from a distance of 1.3 metre. The average time taken to ablate one inflorescence would be two seconds. On average, in one hour, a person can ablate 125 inflorescences, without removing the green leaves.
Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare inaugurated the ‘Technology Exhibition’ in the historic Mallinath Krishi and Pashu Mela held at the Tilwara Village of Barmer District, Rajasthan. Present were Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of Jal Shakti; Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. The exhibition was organised by the ICAR Institutes.
Delivering the inaugural address, Tomar highlighted the Central Government’s plans for putting a greater emphasis on agricultural research and enhancing the farmers’ income. The benefits of the Farmer’s Insurance Scheme were also underlined by the Union Minister.
Shekhawat outlined the interlinking of the rivers for the farmers’ benefit.
Dr Balyan expressed his concerns over the declining camel population. The role of goats and sheep in the drought years of Rajasthan was also highlighted by the minister.
Shri Choudhary applauded the efforts of the research institutes and farmers of the region that have brought revolutions in agriculture and horticulture in the driest parts of the region. The increased cultivation of pomegranate, date palm and fig which are now being marketed in the international markets was accentuated by the minister.
ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research has organised a three-day National Seminar on “Fruit Production in Eastern Tropical Region”
The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, Karnataka has organised a three-day National Seminar on “Fruit Production in Eastern Tropical Region” at its Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Bhubaneswar, Odisha from March 24 to 26, 2022.
The Seminar was aimed at devising a roadmap for the development of the fruit industry in the Eastern Tropical Region through deliberations and recommendations.
Dr Anand Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticultural Science), ICAR emphasised on the judicious use of the resources to promote sustainability in the fruit production and enhancing the farmers’ income. The scope of Entrepreneurship development in the horticulture sector as it is the most vibrant sector in agriculture was underlined by Dr Singh.
Professor DP Ray, Chancellor, S‘O’A, Bhubaneswar, Odisha highlighted the importance of crop diversification owing to the prevalence of the different agro-climatic zones.
Dr PK Agarwal, Vice-Chancellor, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha outlined the importance of the post-harvest management including the processing and value-chain management in fruit crops for the development of the sector in the region.
Dr V Pandey, ADG (Horticultural Science), ICAR emphasised on the importance of the genetic diversity in fruit crops for the ecological sustainability and nutritional security.
The Scientists and Students from 23 Universities, 18 ICAR Institutes, FSSAI and IIP, Mumbai, Maharashtra participated in the Seminar.
Harit Dhara is found very effective in reducing the enteric methane emission upto 17 per cent to 20 per cent when incorporated in the livestock feed
The ICAR-National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru, Karnataka has commercialised the “Harit Dhara” Technology to the M/s Saideep Exports Private Limited on a non-exclusive basis through the AgrInnovate India on March 24, 2022.
Dr Raghavendra Bhatta, Director, ICAR-NIANP, Bengaluru and MR Aravind, CEO, M/s Saideep Exports signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on the behalf of their respective organisations for the licensing to manufacture and sell the formulation.
Aravind stated that with the technology’s commercialisation, they can brand their feed as a “Green Feed”. He also said that the technology is truly indigenous in tune with the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat in combating the climate change.
The Harit Dhara developed by the Institute through the comprehensive research over a decade is an anti-methanogenic feed supplement prepared from the natural phyto-sources. It is found very effective in reducing the enteric methane emission upto 17 per cent to 20 per cent when incorporated in the livestock feed.
The partial inhibition of the enteric methanogenesis will have the dual advantage of stabilising the global warming process and enhancing the productivity by re-channelising the saved biological energy. The Institute has already filed a Patent for Harit Dhara.
Ministers discussed ways to improve the agri sector and the role being played by ICAR
The 93rd Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society was recently organised at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex, New Delhi.
Delivering his presidential address, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar underlined the establishment of the ICAR in 1929. The pivotal role played by the Council through its research and technology development in creating the food and nutritional security in the country with the untiring cooperation of farmers and scientists over the years was also highlighted by the minister. Tomar underlined the record production of the food grains and horticultural products in the country that has made us self-sufficient to meet not only the domestic demands enabled to supply the same to the different countries as well.
Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying urged for recognising the local techniques of the small farmers. The encouragement of the cheese made from Banshi Gir Cow’s Milk for export was also stressed by the Union Minister. Rupala suggested the ICAR get benefitted from the upcoming three events – G20 Conference, International Dairy Programme and Jamnagar getting International recognition in Ayurveda.
Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare urged for working in pace with the visions of the Prime Minister. He said that there is a scope for working in the field of horticulture. Mentioning a number of plants that are being imported, the minister urged for developing their varieties in the country itself.
Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog stated that in the current Financial Year, India’s Agricultural exports have crossed $50 billion. He said that there has been an increase of about 22 per cent in a single Year.
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) underlined the development of 389 new varieties by the ICAR during the last Year. The DG mentioned the focus on crops and pulses varieties. Dr Mohapatra stated that the new research in food crops and horticultural arenas have benefited the country to a large extent.
Raghavji Patel, Cabinet Minister, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cow Breeding, Government of Gujarat; Virender Kanwar, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, Government of Himachal Pradesh; Tage Taki, Minister Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture & Fisheries, Government of Arunachal Pradesh were among the Guests of Honor during the occasion.
The Members of ICAR Society; Members of ICAR Governing Body along with Sanjay Garg, Additional Secretary (DARE) & Secretary (ICAR); Sanjiv Kumar, Financial Advisor (DARE) and Senior Officials & Scientists of ICAR were also present during the occasion.
The ministers released the various ICAR Publications and Products during the occasion.
The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal has recently organised national webinar on “Agritech innovations to leap forward sustainable management of soil and environment”
The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh has recently organised national webinar on “Agritech innovations to leap forward sustainable management of soil and environment”.
Delivering the inaugural address, the Chief Guest, Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR highlighted the importance of the scientific management of soil and water using the agri-innovations like Sensors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Artificial Intelligence and Cloud-based Solutions. The nature-based solutions for reducing the reliance on the high input agriculture were also stressed by the DDG.
Dr Ashok K Patra, Director, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh underlined about the ICT based Agritech innovations in doubling the farmers’ income.
Dr Praveen Pankajakshan, VP Data Science & AI, Cropin (India) delivered the Keynote Address on “Crop Mapping using AI & Remote-Sensing for Eco-Agriculture and Sustainability (CARES)”. The ways in which the Cropin is dealing with the issues like crop diversity, soil restoration, climate smart agriculture, carbon storage using prediction models and identification of crop pests & diseases were stated by Dr Praveen.
Dr Sara Malvar, Senior Research Software Development Engineer, Microsoft, Brazil and Tusher Chakraborty, Software Engineer – II, Microsoft, India also delivered the keynote address on “FarmBeats and Terra Vibes: Empowering farmers with affordable digital agriculture and earth observation solutions”.
Global germplasm will be used in the Indian breeding programmes
The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha on March 15, 2022, has announced that the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) has enabled access to global germplasm for use in the Indian breeding programmes. Ten high yielding varieties of Lentil, Chickpea and Barley have been released by ICARDA along with ICAR for commercial cultivation in India during the last three years. Of these, six were released in 2019, three in 2020 and one in 2021.
The ICARDA is engaged in the research and development of improved varieties of food crops (Wheat and Barley) and nutritionally rich pulses. Besides, ICARDA also works on different natural management systems like cropping systems, water productivity modelling, conservation agriculture technology, fodder cactus, etc. in association with the ICAR institutions, the State/Central Agricultural Universities and the Central and State Departments.
This herbal based formulation kills all stages of ticks in cattle and goat and safe to be used all stages of livestock
ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, and Natural Agro Products Private Limited, Port Blair has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for licensing of Dweep tickure- a herbal based formulation for control of ticks in livestock, on March 11, 2022.
Dr E B Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI and Vijay Vishwasrao Patil, C/o Natural Agro Products Private Limited, Port Blair, South Andaman inked the MoU for their respective Institutes.
A team comprising Dr Jai Sunder, Dr T Sujatha, Dr D Bhattacharya, Dr E B Chakurkar and Dr A K De have developed oil based herbal topical formulation as acaricides for control of tick infestation in livestock. This herbal based formulation kills all stages of ticks in cattle and goat and safe to be used all stages of livestock including pregnant and lactating animals.
The facility will have demonstration units for mushroom production, food processing & value-addition and poultry production
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the Technology Demonstration Facility at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Khordha, Odisha on March 10, 2022. Ajaya Kumar Dash, Head, KVK, Khordha briefed about the new facility. The facility will have demonstration units for mushroom production, food processing & value-addition and poultry production. It will also be used for imparting the skill training to the farmers and farm women.
The DG was accompanied by Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science); Dr BP Mohanty, ADG (Inland Fisheries), ICAR along with Dr SK Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar and other Senior Officials of ICAR-CIFA and KVK, Khordha.
While interacting with the farmers and farm women in the Exhibition organised at the KVK, Khordha, Dr Mohapatra urged the KVK for facilitating the Self-Help Groups to improve their marketing skills and organise them to form as collectives like Farmers’ Producers’ Organisations to scale-up their operations. Underlining the Government of India’s target of creating 10,000 FPOs by 2025, the Director General emphasised that the KVKs would play a key role in mobilising the farmers and providing technical support.
During his interaction with the Scientists and Staff Members of ICAR-CIFA, he urged for focusing on the outreach & effective communication of the scientific research to the stakeholders and reorienting the research priorities for bringing out innovations that can enhance the farmers’ income.
