Project Completion-cum-Convergence Workshop on Integrated Farming System organised by ICAR-ATARI, Kolkata

30th June, 2023, Kolkata

The Project Completion-cum-Convergence Workshop on NABARD funded project entitled ‘Formulation of Area Development Schemes and Development of Area-specific Software Template for Model Integrated Farming across Six Agro-climatic Regions of West Bengal’ was organized at ICAR-ATARI Kolkata today.

The Chief Guest,  Dr. J.K. Ray, IAS, Secretary, PSC, Arunachal Pradesh in his address suggested connecting agri-preneurs with integrated farming systems and mapping infrastructure to identify the deficiency. He also suggested uploading different bankable project templates of IFS model in the ICAR-ATARI Kolkata website so that farmers could opt for suitable model according to their convenience.

The Guest of Honour, Shri P. Sengupta, Director and Ex-officio Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Govt. of West Bengal, emphasized on the formation of FPC to facilitate group activities as well as the marketing for the farmers for facilitating IFS.

  

Dr. Pradip Dey, Director, ICAR-ATARI Kolkata in his welcome address depicted the significance of the Integrated Farming System (IFS) towards the circular economy and ecosystem services. He also highlighted the importance of technology diffusion and research monetization through this type of convergence workshop. He suggested developing a machine-learning based module to identify best IFS model based on investment capacity of farmers.

Dr. R. Mondal, Joint Director, Directorate of Animal Resource and Animal Health, depicted the importance of inclusion of livestock in integrated farming system to boost the income per unit area of land.

 Dr. A.K. Das, representing ICAR-CIFRI, suggested to opt fishery in IFS as a higher economic return option.

Dr. D. B. Shakyawar, Director, ICAR-NINFET and Dr. G. Kar, Director, ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackpore and Shri Jayanta Kumar Aikat, Commissioner Department of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture, Govt. of West Bengal joined the session in virtual mode and enriched the House with their deliberation.

Dr. Avijit Haldar, Principal Scientist and PI of the project delivered a presentation on the initiation, fund allocation, objectives, area covered, activities, results and achievements of the project in a comprehensive manner. He highlighted the use of SWOT-AHP analysis for identifying the particular SWOT components for different IFS models of six agro-climatic zones of West Bengal. He highlighted the use of machine learning technique for ranking the IFSs.

Dr. S.N. Mandal, Co-PI of the project, presented the digital questionnaire and discussed the ranking procedure of IFS models. He informed the development of a software template on exploring IFSs in WB under this project.

Mr. S. Priyadarshi Asst. Manager, NABARD, Kolkata gave an overview on how to design a project to acquire more fund allocation from NABARD.

Dr. S. N. Mandal, Asst. Professor, Kalyani Govt. Engineering College and Co-PI of the project along with the Senior Scientists and Head, Nodal Subject Matter Specialists of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Senior Research Fellows, Young Professionals and all the technical as well as scientific staff of ICAR-ATARI, Kolkata and two progressive farmers were present in the workshop. Total of 15 KVKs of six agro-climatic zones of WB participated in the workshop.

Overall, bio-economic circularity of resources, development of prediction model on optimization of IFS and site-specific economic importance of IFS components were discussed in this meeting. The conducive environment created through this project in agro-climatic zone-specific IFS model development was specially appreciated by the house.

(Source: ICAR-ATARI, Kolkata)