13th Annual Review Meeting of ICAR’s Niche Area of Excellence Programme

24^th October, 2019, New Delhi

The Division of Agricultural Education, ICAR organized the “13^thAnnual Review Meeting of Niche Area of Excellence (NAE) Programme of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)” at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex, New Delhi today.

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) regarded the Niche Area of Excellence Programme as ICAR’s one of the most prestigious programmes for building the global competitiveness in the agricultural education and research. Dr. Mohapatra emphasized on the presentation of the Action Taken Report for monitoring the progress with respect to the objectives and timeline for redesigning the strategy to bridge-up the gap.

The Director General accentuated on the international level rating, standards and indicators for judging the performance of the project and publication of NAAS rated journals. He also stressed on the need to have a mechanism for bringing the logical end for the commercialization of the products, if any left under the completed projects of the Niche Area of Excellence.

Dr. R.C. Agarwal, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education), ICAR stressed upon the need of studying the programme’s impact that is operational from the Year - 2006. He emphasized on checking the duplication of the activities of similar nature, while scrutinizing the new project proposals being run under the National Agricultural Science Fund and National Higher Agricultural Education Project.

He opined for identifying the thematic areas for the Niche Area of Excellence Programme. Dr. Agarwal also urged the experts for providing their important suggestions and views during the meeting for the physical, technical, and financial progress of the ongoing projects.

Dr. A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticultural & Crops Sciences), ICAR expressed his satisfaction over the progress of the ongoing research projects at DBSKKV, Dapoli on Alphonso Mango and Kinnow Project at Abohar Centre of Punjab Agricultural University.

Dr. P.S. Pandey, ADG (Education Planning & Home Science), ICAR highlighted the Scheme’s objectives for achieving the educational excellence in teaching, research and capacity building in the frontier areas of agriculture and its allied disciplines. Dr. Pandey mentioned about the conclusion of 55 Projects till date and On-going 16 Projects.

The ADG also highlighted about the publishing of 387 Publications, 170 of which are in journals with NAAS rating 5 and above during the Year - 2012-13 to 2018-19. He also accentuated on the transfer of around 18 technologies generated by different centres and development of many linkages by the centres during the last 2 Years.

The Senior Officials of ICAR were also present during the occasion.

The occasion also marked the releasing of 2 CDs of e-Courses developed by ICAR-NAARM covering video lectures for UG students of Veterinary Graduates and Plant Protection Lectures for UG level of Agriculture Graduates and 1 Diagnostic Kit for Detection of Pesticide in Milk developed by ICAR-NDRI, Karnal under the Niche Area Projects.

(Source: ICAR-Division of Agricultural Education, New Delhi)