ICAR Sikkim Centre Celebrates 39th Foundation Day
ICAR Research Complex, Sikkim Centre celebrated its 39th Foundation Day on October 21st, 2014 to commemorate the recent achievements and create awareness among the farmers regarding the development of need based and location specific modern farming technologies.
Shri K.C. Pradhan, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary and Advisor to the Govt. of Sikkim graced the occasion as ‘Chief Guest’. During his inaugural address he emphasized that food security of the region is a very important issue and ICAR has to play key role in attaining it. He briefed about the past agricultural scenario of Sikkim and challenges posed to the scientists for developing climate resilient technologies in the changing climatic conditions. He appreciated the extensive work carried out by the ICAR for the farmers of Sikkim. He suggested that ICAR should take up ‘Lab to Land’ program on large scale for fast horizontal spread of its technologies. He further said we have to be competitive in fruit production by adopting better scientific techniques.
Shri P.T. Bhutia, Secretary, FSADD, Govt. of Sikkim in his address advised the farmers to adopt Integrated Farming System to address the issue of climate change. He appreciated the efforts of ICAR and also suggested farmers to take full benefits of ICAR technologies as scientists are working hard to develop the technologies. He emphasized that State Agriculture Department is planning to intervene in extensive way for high altitude potato cultivation in North Sikkim as a pilot project. He solicited the technical support from ICAR.
Shri C.K. Dorjee, Director, Press Information Bureau (PIB) in his address largely appreciated the contributions of ICAR. He said that role of agriculture is very important not only for sustenance but also in nation building. He further said that mass media is a powerful source for publicizing the technologies developed by ICAR and extended his full support for that. He invited ICAR to participate in ‘Public Information Campaign’ being organized by PIB in Singtam and Mangan later this year. He also highlighted the details of various schemes launched by Government of India for public awareness.
Joint Director ICAR Sikkim Centre, Dr. R. K. Avasthe welcomed gathering and appraised the gathering with salient achievements of the Centre and future plans towards the agricultural development of Sikkim. In his address, he briefed about the ongoing activities of ICAR Sikkim Centre, technologies and package of practices developed in the Centre and future strategies to help the farmers to increase the production in agriculture and allied sectors. Moreover, he assured that ICAR will extend full help and cooperation to the farmers and officials of the State Agriculture Department to improve agriculture in the state.
Dr. Yashoda Pradhan, Additional Executive Director, Sikkim Organic Mission (SOM); Shri M. K. Pradhan, Joint Director, SOM, Smt. Asha Lama, Joint Director, FSADD, East Sikkim and persons from Print and Electronic Media especially Doordarshan, Nayuma TV and DD North East were also present on the occasion. During the inaugural session, ten technical folders were released; four progressive farmers viz. Smt. Maya Bhutia, Shri Phurba Lepcha, Shri Kandan Singi Bhutia and Shri Laxmi Bista were felicitated for their outstanding contributions in agri- enterprenureship. Retiring Shri S.N. Mehta, CTO, KVK East Sikkim was also felicitated on the occasion. Later on Chief Guest and progressive farmers visited the ICAR research farm to get apprised with latest technologies of ICAR and ongoing activities. Dr. H. Kalita, Principal Scientist (Entomology), briefed about the ‘organic insect pest management practices’; Dr. Ashish Yadav, Senior Scientist (Horticulture) briefed on the ‘organic production technologies of fruits and vegetables’; Dr. Subhash Babu, Scientist (Agronomy) briefed on the ‘climate smart cropping system’; Dr. R. Gopi, Scientist (Plant Pathology) briefed on ‘organic disease management in large cardamom’; Shri Chandan Kapoor, Scientist (Plant Breeding) explained the trials on ‘50 local rice germplasm’; Dr. Brijesh Kumar, Scientist (Animal Reproduction) briefed the ‘dairy breed suitable for higher milk production’ and Dr. Mahak Singh, Scientist (Animal Reproduction) briefed about the ‘backyard poultry farming with vanaraja’. Chief Guest also distributed the organic agricultural inputs, kiwifruit training structures,mushroom spawns and day old vanaraja chicks to the farmers of Sikkim.
In the beginning of the programme, Dr. H. Kalita, Principal Scientist, ICAR Sikkim Centre heartily welcomed all the dignitaries, officers from state departments and farmers to the programme, Dr. Ashish Yadav, Senior Scientist (Horticulture) proposed the vote of thanks and Shri S.M. Kandwal, Technical Officer coordinated the inaugural function of the program.
