Inauguration of Annual Co-operators’ Conference

Annual Co-operators’ Conference (17-18 October 2022) jointly organized by ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad and Anglo-American’s Crop Nutrients (AACN) was inaugurated at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad today.

The Chief Guest, Mr. Gareth Wynn Owen, Deputy High Commissioner, UK High Commission emphasised on collaboration between India-UK to work on food insecurity in India and across the world as well. He also highlighted the importance of POLY4 in balanced nutrition and sustainable agriculture. He emphasised that the discussions and deliberations during the conference would be highly useful in addressing the crop nutrition challenges.

The Guest of Honour, Mr. Roy Moore, Regional Head, APAC and India, AACN highlighted about the development of POLY4 product from mining. He briefed about the Anglo Americans Crop Nutrients is collaborating with ICAR institutes and SAUS for undertaking research on crop nutrition to enhance crop productivity and soil health.

Dr. Ajoy Kumar Singh, Former Vice=Chancellor, Bihar Agriculture University, Bhagalpur, emphasised on use of POLY4 in organic farming and its dissemination can be made easy through policy makers and co-operators.

Dr. Arvind Kumar, Former Vice-Chancellor, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University emphasised on reorientation of Indian Agricultural Research from caloric centric cereals to proteins, vitamins and minerals to address the food and nutritional security.

Earlier, Dr V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA briefed the aim of the conference which is to bring the top leaders together from research and academia with the fertiliser industry across the country to shed light on the best of research practices in crop nutrition; to address sustainability issues through balanced crop nutritional practices and to review the progress of research work on POLY4 in India.

Dr Neeraj Kumar Awasthi, Country Manager, Anglo-American Crop Nutrients (AACN) briefed the overall objectives and expectations of the conference.

Mr. Ross Mitchell, Global Head Agronomy, AACN, highlighted diversity of soils and crops of Indian agriculture helps in evaluating the performance of POLY4 in a better way.

Compendium of Extended summaries of this conference was released by the dignitaries.

About 200 members including scientists, research workers, and students participated.

(Source: ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad)