Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture  and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare visited the Precision Farming Development Centre created under National Committee on Precision Agriculture and Horticulture (NCPAH). He also visited the RKVY- RAFTAAR Agri-start up Agribusiness Incubator (R-ABI) and the Integrated Beekeeping Development Centre (IBDC) at the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), Coimbatore.

 

While interacting with the farmers, beekeepers, agri-entrepreneurs and students, Dr. Likhi  emphasised that extensive extension efforts must be initiated by all stakeholders to ensure maximum outreach of agricultural technologies and related innovations amongst small and marginal farmers.

 

The Central Government has setup 22 Precision Farming Development Centres (PFDC) in all the agro climatic zones of the country with an aim to develop and disseminate regionally differentiated technologies on precision farming such as micro irrigation and hi-tech agriculture  and to maximize production and productivity per unit area to enhance the socio-economic conditions of farmers and end users. These 22 PFDCs are located in State/Central Agricultural Universities (SAUs), ICAR Institutes and IITs in the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, West Bengal, Ladakh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Assam.

 

The PFDC at Coimbatore  has conducted researches on thrust areas like Drip Irrigation, Plastic mulching, Pond lining, green house, cladding material, sprinkler irrigation. Researches have also been conducted on technologies like Drip Irrigation, Fertigation, Plastic mulching, Polyhouse, Drip automation, GIS and Soil less media.

 

The  RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness incubation facility promotes agri-startups. Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has appointed 5 knowledge Partners (KPs) as Centre of Excellence and 24 RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) across the country including the one in Coimbatore.

  

 

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