BHUBANESWAR: Agriculture Production Commissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal has urged the research fraternity to make new generation farming technologies available to improve socio-economic condition of farmers.
While addressing the 24th meeting of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) - Regional Committee II, Dhal said countries like Israel and USA are using 4G farming technologies while farmers in India are at 2G level. He highlighted robotics, genomics and nanotechnology in agriculture and advised researchers to make such facilities available for better farm output.
The Regional Committee II of ICAR comprises members from West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The event organised by ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore in collaboration with ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar concluded.
Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of ICAR Trilochan Mohapatra said the region offers tremendous scope and opportunities for multi-pronged growth of agriculture sector, including animal husbandry, fisheries, horticulture and sericulture.
He said, “The region is contributing significantly to the food basket of the country. The States are major producers of rice, potato, tomato, jute, poultry, fishes, oil-palm, vegetables and flowers.”
Stating that the country produces more than 280 million tonnes of food grains despite the problems of climate change, loss of arable land due to urbanisation and a host of other issues, Mohapatra said a right mix of technological breakthroughs and policy support has made this happen. He called for concerted efforts of ICAR, State Agricultural Universities and State Governments to ensure that farmers’ income is doubled.
Special Secretary of DARE and Secretary of ICAR Chhabilendra Roul emphasised on paradigm shift in production system. The structural disconnect between consumer and production systems has to be bridged, he said.
The ICAR has set up eight regional committees across the country on the basis of agro-climatic conditions. The committees would provide a forum to stakeholders to examine major gaps in current research and training efforts, identify priorities and decide agenda of research and extension in agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries
The States are major producers of rice, potato, tomato, jute, poultry, fishes, oil-palm, vegetables and flowers - Gagan Kumar Dhal, Agriculture Production Commissioner.
Among others, DDG (Fisheries Science and Animal Science) JK Jena, ICAR-CIFRI Director BK Das, Additional Secretary of DARE Bimbadhar Pradhan and State Agriculture Secretary Saurabh Garg also spoke.The ICAR region II is contributing significantly to the food basket of the country.
Source:http://www.newindianexpress.com/
