XXXIII RAC Meeting of ICAR-CRIDA Organised

29th April 2025, Hyderabad

The XXXIII Research Advisory Committee Meeting (RAC) of ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad was held on 28 -29 April 2025 in hybrid mode at ICAR-CRIDA.

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Chairperson, PPV& FRA, Former Secretary (DARE) & Former Director General, ICAR, chaired the meet and urged digitalisation of database and technologies emanated from the institute which can be of immense help in retrieval and in impact analysis. Focus on adoption of AI and ML tools in decision making should be the priority to deal with the effects of climate change, he added.

Dr V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA, spoke about the key importance of RAC for the overall improvement of the institute's research programme. He also presented the contributions of the institute in Dryland agriculture and explained about recent national outputs of the institute and overview of ICAR-CRIDA.

Dr M Srinivasa Rao, Member Secretary presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of the previous meeting of RAC (XXXII) and the same was accepted by the Research Advisory Committee.

Dr J.P. Sharma, Former Vice-Chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, highlighted that out scaling and upscaling the technologies with the support of state departments and KVKs should be the focus to reach the farmers nationwide.

Dr H.N. Verma, Former Director, ICAR- Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, emphasized the need to renovate community ponds as a practical solution for water cycling, particularly benefiting small and marginal farmers.

Dr A.M. Shekh, Former Vice-Chancellor, Anand Agricultural University, mentioned that assessment and quantification of microclimate for the pest and disease forewarning should be addressed.

Dr D.K. Sharma, Former Director, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, reiterated that understanding and refining the technologies from farmers’ perspective can make them more viable.

Dr A. Velmurugan, Assistant Director General (Soil Water Management) ICAR & (AAF & CC) emphasised the importance of comprehensive impact analysis of dryland technologies and suggested documentation of success stories.

At the outset, the RAC Chairman commended the efforts of ICAR-CRIDA, AICRPDA, and AICRPAM, and stressed the importance of strengthening dryland research in light of climate change and emerging challenges in dryland agriculture.

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