Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh congratulated scientists and officials of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on its 90th Foundation day in New Delhi on Monday.
Singh said the efforts of ICAR have helped India transform from an importing nation to an exporting one and also provided self-sufficiency and nutritional security in food-grains. Due to the efforts of our skilled scientists and the hard work of the farmers, the country today has a reliable buffer stock in food-grain.
Working tirelessly ICAR has established the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Assam and IARI, Jharkhand on the lines of India’s leading agricultural research institute IARI, Pusa, Singh stated.
ICAR is playing a vital role in fulfilling the government vision of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Keeping in mind the suggestions of the Council, the government, besides increasing budgetary allocation, has also created several corpus funds to improve the infrastructure of dairy, cooperative, fisheries, animal husbandry, agriculture market, small irrigation scheme, water bodies management etc, he added..
Due to the techniques developed by ICAR and hard work of the farmers, foodgrain production touched 275.68 million tonnes this year, which is 10.64 million tonnes more than 265.04 million tonnes recorded in 2013-14, Singh underlined.
Singh listed the data on the increased production of horticulture products and pulses and said the Pusa basmati 1121 variety of Basmati rice developed by ICAR has helped India earn more than Rs 18,000 crore in foreign exchange every year. During 2010-14, India earned Rs 62,800 crore in foreign exchange from exports, which rose to Rs Rs 71,900 crore in 2014-18.
The Union Minister further said that in order to tide over the problems associated with climate change, 45 integrated farming systems have been developed including 15 agro-climatic zones.
He also recounted how the govt fought against environment pollution due to stubble burning. A comprehensive campaign was initiated by ICAR’s 35 KVKs. An awareness campaign was carried out among 45,000 farmers and on waste management activities, 1,200 live demonstrations were done in 4,708 hectare area, Singh underlined.
The Agriculture Minister said the skill development of students in the Student READY (Rural Enterpreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) programme has now been included for one complete year to attract youth to agriculture education. By coordinating ICAR’s agricultural research, education and advance line activities at a national level, more than 750 start-ups and agri entrepreneurs have been developed.
The Union Minister concluded by saying that the country has full faith in the efforts of ICAR’s scientists and the hard work of the farmers and hoped that the country will move forward on the path of agricultural development faster than ever before.
