Need to take research to the doorsteps of farmers: Singh to ICRISAT
“Taking technologies that are ready to the doorstep of every smallholder farmer in the country is a priority for the Union Government. With support from ICRISAT and other agricultural institutions, we will reach out to more farmers in rural India,” he said on his visit to the institute earlier this week.
The Minister said, “We must improve the health of soil to the benefit of smallholder farmers. I urge ICRISAT to upscale plans to extend soil health cards to every farmer in the country.”
Recognizing the importance of pulses in enhancing food security and incomes of smallholder farmers, the minister discussed with ICRISAT, the Union Government’s priority of upscaling cultivation of pulses and making it more competitive and attractive to farmers.
He pledged additional support to the efforts of ICRISAT to enable a Pulses Revolution in India.
ICRISAT Director General William D Dar and his team briefed the Minister on various research programmes at the institute.
While visiting the ICRISAT Centre of Excellence in Genomics, the Director General shared with the Minister the idea of an India Genome Centre for Agriculture which has the potential to transform India into a global leader in genomics.
The Minister also visited the Centre of Excellence for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Agriculture and the RS Paroda Gene Bank, and interacted with scientists.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.