New Delhi [India]July 17 (ANI): The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Sunday celebrated its 95th Foundation Day at its headquarters in the national capital.
In line with the foundation day, a three-day exhibition has been organized to showcase technologies developed by the state-owned premier research organization to benefit farmers, students, industry and entrepreneurs. Seeds, horticulture items, processed organic products like millet, drones for spraying fertilizers and pesticides were on display for the visitors.
The exhibition is open to the public till Tuesday.
Established on July 16, 1929, and earlier known as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR is an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, according to its website.
The Council is the apex body for coordination, guidance and management of research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences throughout the country.
With 113 ICAR institutes and 71 agricultural universities spread across the country, it is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.
Speaking on the occasion, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and President of ICAR Society, appreciated the historic journey of ICAR and its overall achievements during the last 94 years. He lauded the scientists and farmers for their great service to the country in making the country not only self-sufficient in many commodities but also an exporter of food items.
The chief guest of the program Tomar said that India is a surplus nation in terms of food grains and provides food to 80 crore people of the country.
Giving credit to the sincere efforts of Indian farmers and scientists, he said India’s agricultural products are being appreciated globally and millets are gaining importance in the International Year of Millets celebrated this year.
The Agriculture Minister said that exports earned from agriculture and horticulture products have crossed US$ 50 billion.
Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry-Dairy Parshottam Rupala stressed on the need to harness carbon credits in agriculture, which can benefit Indian farmers.
Rupala specifically said that the time has come to earn carbon credits from agriculture which can be pursued for additional income.
On this occasion, Rupala called upon agricultural scientists to increase research on millets in view of the increasing demand. Apart from this, he also suggested that they should do more research on sheep, goat, camel and donkey milk instead of cow’s milk.
The Ministers said that this is the right time to prepare a roadmap to be achieved in the centenary year of ICAR – the 100th year.
Secretary (DARE) and Director General (ICAR) Himanshu Pathak emphasized that India is not only self-sufficient in food grain production but is also exporting agriculture and agriculture products in large quantities.
In his presentation at the beginning of the event, he highlighted the achievements made by ICAR such as development of 346 varieties of food grains, 99 varieties of horticulture crops, mapping of efficient cropping system areas, breeding programs for 24 crops, 28 new tools and machinery, vaccines for corona virus and nodular disease, new diagnostics, breeding protocols for new breeds of fish, etc. (ANI)
This report is automatically generated from ANI news service. ThePrint takes no responsibility for its content.