First Meeting of Standing Technical Committee (STC) of National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) held
9th January, 2015, New Delhi
The First Meeting of Standing Technical Committee (STC) of NMSA, DAC, MoA, GoI, was held at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi here today. Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Chairman, STC & Director, ICAR-Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad; members of STC namely Dr. J.P. Mishra, Adviser, Planning Commission; Dr. MM.Roy Director, ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Jodhpur; Dr. S.K. Dhyani, ICAR - Central Agroforestry Research Institute , Jhansi; Dr. AK. Patra, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Sciences, Bhopal; Representatives of ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; Dr. V.P. Sharma, Director, MANAGE; Dr. SK. Patil, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Dr. Tej Pratap, Vice Chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Dr. Premjit Singh, Vice Chancellor (actg.), Central Agricultural University participated in the meeting.
The special invitees for the meeting included Dr B. Meena Kumari, DDG (Fisheries), ICAR; officials from DAC and Drs. S. Desai, K.V. Rao, and Ravindra Chary from ICAR-CRIDA. Mr. B. Rath Additional Commissioner (RFS), DAC, explained about NMSA and its operational guidelines which was followed by a presentation by the Chairman on role of STC which included role of STC. He also highlighted location-specific doable rainfed technologies and experiences of NICRA that can be integrated into State Action Plans. The participants deliberated on the role and modus operandi of NMSA, preparation of State Action Plans and constraints in implementation, convergence of NMSA for effective implementation, and contribution of NMSA for adaptation and mitigation to climate change.
The principal outcomes of the meeting were: constituting a NMSA Cell at National Level in DAC for harmonizing all four components of NMSA, effective convergence, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of NMSA; identifying and bench mark survey of pilot blocks; identifying and upscaling of doable rained technologies considering the diversity in biophysical (physiography, land, water, rained production systems) and socioeconomic settings of rained areas to achieve sustainability, economic viability and as adaptation and mitigation interventions to climate change; integration of district level contingency plans in State/District Action Plans and operationalzing the contingency plans on real time basis to cope with weather aberrations; qualitative and quantitative monitoring of targets at field level; collating location-specific successful rained technologies developed by National Agriculture Research System and integration into State/District Action Plans; conducting a brainstorming workshop for nodal officers on preparing District and State Action Plans and training of nodal officers.
Dr. S. Desai, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CRIDA, proposed vote of thanks.
(Source: ICAR-Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad)
