ICAR Institutes celebrate World Water Day - 2022

22nd March, 2022

Since its inception in the Year - 1993, the “World Water Day” is celebrated on 22nd March every Year to apprise the people about the importance of freshwater. The core focus of the World Water Day is to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Water and Sanitation for all by 2030.

The ICAR Institutes Also celebrated the World Water Day on this Year’s Theme - “Groundwater, making the invisible visible” with full zeal.

ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

The Institute organized the Talk on “Water for Food: Need for a Paradigm Shift in Thinking” to celebrate the World Water Day - 2022.

Delivering the Talk, Dr. Vinay Nangia, Research Leader, Soil, Water and Agronomy, ICARDA, Jordon highlighted the amount of water used for producing the food grains and the other commodities in relation to the national food security. He also stated that the water productivity at the different scales can depict agricultural growth of the region. The irrigated area’s expansion through efficient water management practices, use of green water and improving water productivity were stressed by Dr. Nangia.

Dr. C.R. Mehta, Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal stressed on the importance of celebrating the World Water Day.

The Talk organized as a part of the “Bharat Ka Amrut Mahotsav” to commemorate 75 Years of India’s Independence registered participation by 110 participants including the Scientists of ICAR Institutes, State Agricultural Universities, ICRDA Staff Members, Technical Staff, Research Scholars and Project Staff Members of the Institute.

ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana, Punjab

In his address, Dr. A.K. Singh, Principal Scientist, (Agronomy), ICAR-IIMR, Ludhiana highlighted the importance and relevance of water in the farming systems with the farmers of Ladhowal, Ludhiana, Punjab.

The role of water in enabling the sustainable agricultural systems for improved food security and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations was highlighted by Dr. Singh.

He also stressed about the declining groundwater table in Punjab and encouraged the farmers to take-up the Maize Cultivation for lesser water usage as compared to Rice.

More than 20 farmers participated in the event.

ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

The Chief Guest, Dr. P.K. Agrawal, Vice-Chancellor, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha stressed on the need for strengthening the research on the effective means for making invisible ground water resources visible and efficient utilization of the visible ground water resources in the agricultural sector for enhancing the crop productivity.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. H.K. Panda, Director, Directorate of Soil & Water Conservation & Watershed Development, Government of Odisha underlined the positive impacts of creating the water harvesting structures on groundwater recharge in the watersheds.

In his welcome address, Dr. A. Mishra, Director, ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar underlined the spatial distribution of rainfall, status of groundwater resources, categorization of blocks and management strategies. The need for promoting the micro-irrigation in India for the favorable water budget and horizontal expansion of the irrigated area was also stressed by Dr. Mishra.

The Chief Speaker, Dr. S. Mohanty, Principal Scientist, ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar delivered the presentation on “Groundwater scenario and management strategy in India”. The challenges, scope and future strategies for the sustainable development of groundwater resources were also highlighted by Dr. Mohanty.

Around 80 Scientists and Staff Members of the Institute participated in the event.

ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Amaresh Chandra, Director, ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh stressed on the need for “More Crop, Per Drop” Techniques and the adoption of advanced techniques for the soil water conservation.

The Key Speaker, Dr. Ramesh Singh, Principal Scientist (Natural Resource Management), ICRISAT, Hyderabad delivered the Talk on the Theme - “Groundwater: Making invisible visible”. The water conservation and watershed management strategies, especially, in the Bundelkhand Region were highlighted by Dr. Singh.

Dr. Sunil Kumar, Head (Division of Crop Production), ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi emphasized on increasing the water productivity and decreasing the water footprints by adopting the suitable cropping systems and micro-irrigation.

Around 40 Farmers and Scientists of the Institute participated in the event.

 

ICAR-Research Complex for North-Eastern Hills Region, Sikkim Centre, Tadong, Gangtok

Dr. Ramgopal Laha, Joint Director, ICAR RC for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre urged for the judicious use of water in daily life and its conservation.

Dr. T.L. Bhutia, Scientist (Horticulture), ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region highlighted the main objective of celebrating the day.

Dr. Saurav Saha, Scientist (Agriculture Physics), ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region emphasized on the protected cultivation of high value vegetables during the Rainy season in the low-cost polyhouse and Rain Water Harvesting to cultivate Rabi vegetables in Sikkim Himalaya.

The representatives of the Line Department Officials and Progressive Farmers participated in the event.

(Source: Respective ICAR Institutes)