24 Feb 2016-24 Mar 2016|Noida | Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida
Farmers from various villages of Gautam Budh Nagar attend 1st National Agricultural Research & Innovation Conference at Amity
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Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture(AIOA) in association with Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) started AgRICon - 1st National Agricultural Research& Innovation Conference on the theme “Balanced Fertilization: A Keyto Food Security & Environmental Sustainability” at Amity UniversityCampus, Sector-125, Noida.
The two dayConference aims at bringing togetherProfessionals including Policy Makers, Scientists and Fertilizer Industries on asingle platform to brainstorm ideas for overcoming the challenges related tobalanced fertilizer usage and to come out with innovative measures to promotejudicious use of fertilizers and integrated nutrient management for sustainedfood and nutritional security.
The Conference is being attended by over 38 Farmers fromvarious villages of Gautam Budh Nagar along with students and faculty members.
Mr. V S Sirohi- Marketing Director, KRIBHCO, Dr. A K.Singh, DDG Agriculture Extension, ICAR, Dr. (Mrs.) B Shukla- Vice Chancellor,Amity University, Dr. W. Selvamurthy, President, Amity Science, Technology& Innovation Foundation, Dr. Sunil Saran, Chairman, Amity InternationalCentre for Post-Harvest Technology & Cold Chain Management and Dr. Naleeni Ramawat,Acting Head, Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture, AUUP, Noida inaugurated the Conference
Addressing the gathering, Mr. V S Sirohi- MarketingDirector, KRIBHCO expressed his gratitude to Amity Institute of OrganicAgriculture (AIOA) for organising AgRICon on a very relevant and apttopic. He stressed that India has favourable environment for the production ofany crop since it has fertile soil, high yielding quality of seeds and fairlydeveloped irrigation systems. At the same time expressing his concern, Mr.Sirohi said that in some parts of India the soil is less fertile as compared toother parts and adding to the situation is the problem of post harvest storagefacilities. He suggested that it is important to augment crop production in thecountry through balanced use of fertilisers. He shared that India is the secondlargest consumer of fertilisers in the world after China, consuming about 30million tonnes of fertilizers every year. He shared that Urea, being subsidisedby Government and therefore less expensive, has been extensively used byfarmers which leads to leaching of Nitrates from the soil, thereby affectingthe quality of air, soil and ground water. He averred that the need of the houris to use Organic fertilisers, Bio-Fertilisers ad Compost to ensure balancedfertilisation and opined that collective effort is needed to ensure sustainablefood production along with protection of environment.
Dr. (Mrs.) B Shukla- Vice Chancellor, Amity University, while sharing her views, remarked that Natureand Environment should be least interfered with to ensure their full contribution tosociety and country. She stressed that although the use of fertilisers isimportant for improving the production of crops but their over use is notjudicious. She remarked that just like human bodies, fields also need properfood and rest to perform better. She called upon the farmers to practice croprotation and leave their fields vacant for some time to increase the fertilityof the soil. She highlighted that ICAR has a partnership with Amity forpromoting joint research in the areas of Agriculture and related activities.
Sharing his views, Dr. A K. Singh, DDG Agriculture Extension, ICAR said that the Government of India has been promotingOrganic Farming through Task Forces and soon, Sikkim is going to be declared as“Organic State”. He shared that North East abounds with natural resources,fertile soil and abundance of water and farmers, there, have been usingless fertilizers and practice Organic Farming. He remarked that Organic Farmingin India may not be able to meet International parameters but people have greattrust in Organic products worldwide. He shared that the research is on toimprove the nutritional content of the crops and to develop weather and diseaseresistant crops. He shared that last year, the production of food grainsdecreased and this year also, due to climate change, unexpected droughts andfloods have taken a toll on the production of food grains. He remarked thatsome parts of India have limited sources of irrigation and 50-60% of the areais dry land and is rain fed. He pointed out that out of total water availablein India, 84% goes into Agriculture and water use efficiency in Agriculture isvery less in India.
He stressed that Technology, Fertilizers, assuredIrrigation facilities, Marketing Networks are very important in Agriculture andsuggested that Indian Fertilizer industry needs to be revived; Dryland, Wetlandand Hill Tracks Policies need to be discussed.
During the day, three technical sessions unfolded-“Balanced Fertilization: From Scarcity to Sustainability, “Opportunitiesfor Innovation: Where we are and where we ought to be?” , “Climate-smartAgriculture: Low Input Intensive Agriculture and 4R Nutrient ManagementStrategies to Achieve Environmental Sustainability” and “Precision NutrientManagement: Rebooting agriculture through site-specific nutrient Management” byeminent experts such as Dr. Y. S. Shivay, Principal Scientist, Divisionof Agronomy, IARI, Pusa, Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Principal Scientist, IARI, NewDelhi, Dr. Alok Kalra, Chief Scientist (CSIR) CIMAP Lucknow; Dr. J.S.Bohra, Professor Institute of Agriculture Sciences BHU and others.