5th Annual Zonal Workshop of KVKs of Bihar and Jharkhand

6 – 8th August 2022, Rajgir

ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Patna organized “5th Annual Zonal Workshop of KVKs of Zone-IV” from 6-8th August, 2022 at Rajgir International Convention Centre.

Shri Shrawan Kumar, Minister of Rural Development of Bihar was the Chief Guest of the Valedictory Session. In his address, he stated agriculture is backbone of state economic. He also appreciated the education provided by universities and work done by Scientist of KVKs for farmers at ground level.  The Minister stressed the need of contingency crop planning in the changing climatic resilient agriculture and making agriculture profitable. He also highlighted that only agriculture can provide employment to large section of youths.

Dr. A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (AE), ICAR in his inaugural address stated that ICAR successfully documented DFI case of 75000 farmers whose incomes double during the period of 2016-17 to 2021-22. On analysis of DFI success stories it was found that in maximum cases those farmer’s income doubled who adopted new technologies and diversified their components, he added.  He emphasised that KVKs should organized their training programme by considering one district one product so that, KVK is like one stop shop. He urged the KVKs for focusing on increasing the production and productivity of pulses and oilseeds by narrowing the yield gaps through adoption of new varieties. He stressed on the need to moves towards agriculture with little use of chemicals in form of fertilizer and pesticides. He said only environmentally sustainable, culturally adoptable and commercially viable technology should be advocated at all forum.

Dr. Rameshwar Singh, Vice-Chancellor, BASU said integration of animal husbandry along with cropping is very helpful for increasing the farmer’s income. He also said that KVKs are like bridging the gap between farmer and research institutes.

Dr. Krishna Kumar, VC, RPCAU urged for making the agriculture as Business Oriented. He stressed on the need of better marketing for enhancing the farmers' income.

Dr. Randhir Singh, ADG (Extension), ICAR, New Delhi, said adoption of new technology is only the way to revolutionize the agriculture and ultimately increase the income of farmers. He highlighted that many young and educated person are adopting mechanized farming and establishing entrepreneurial unit related to agriculture not only for livelihood but also for income generation in revolutionary manner. He urged that FLD result should be demonstrated to line department and development agencies officials for its popularization and acceptability in the region.

Dr. R.K. Malik, Country Coordinator, CIMMYT emphasized on the need of Integrated Farming System for enhancing the income of smallholders, value-addition, women empowerment and following the cluster-based approach by the KVKs. He advocated for popularization of bio-fortified variety through OFT and FLD.

Earlier, Dr. Anjani Kumar, Director ICAR-ATARI in his welcome address, presented the overall achievements of ATARI, Zone-IV.  
The Annual Zonal Workshop attended by of Scientists and staff of ICAR Institutes; Director of Extension Education of Universities, Associate Director Extension of Universities, and Heads of 68 KVKs.

 (Source: ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Zone-IV, Patna, Bihar)