"National Symposium cum Industry Meet (NSIM) 2023 on Agri-business in Alliums: Innovation, Promotion & Sustainability"

20th December 2023, Pune

ICAR-Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Pune organized "National Symposium cum Industry Meet (NSIM) 2023 on Agri-business in Alliums: Innovation, Promotion & Sustainability" in association with Maratha Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture and Indian Society of Alium, Pune (20-22 December) was inaugurated today.

Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) and Director General (ICAR), in his virtual address,  emphasised the need to fill the gap between research and the use of research to solve the current problems related to onion and garlic crops. He said to deal with climate change, it is necessary to identify problems and come up with new ideas and new ventures to tackle them.

Dr. Vijay Mahajan, Director, ICAR-DOGR, Pune delivered welcome address.

Dr. Indra Mani VC, VNMKV, Parbhani stressed the value-addition and processing with the promotion of start-ups as key for enhancing farmers income.

Dr. K. E. Lawande EX. VC BSKKV, Dapoli, and former Director ICAR-DOGR, Pune noted that the deliberations among the various stakeholders on key issues in the entire value chain of Onion and  Garlic will address various issues and come out with recommendations for guiding future pathways of research and policy.

Dr. Nura Bhooshan, Assistant Director General, IPTM, ICAR stated the importance of public-private partnership to encourage technology commercialization and thereby generation of entrepreneurship and economy by adding different technologies developed by ICAR-DOGR.

The Industrial meet-cum-symposium provided interactions between industry, subject matter experts, and scientists in related disciplines on topics such as seed and agricultural supply chain, processing, and post-harvest technology, mechanization and sensor-based techniques, marketing and value chain management, as well as new startups and entrepreneurship development in agriculture. During this time, various enterprise representatives shared the difficulties they faced with the researchers. The experts also provided technical guidance on the technological aids available with them including commercialization, and industry issues.

The gathering brought together researchers and various entrepreneurs and stakeholders to promote entrepreneurship and industry in the field of onion and garlic crops and was attended by more than 200 participants.

(Source: ICAR-Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Pune)