Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR), virtually launched the “ICAR-Network Programme on Precision Agriculture (ICAR-NePPA)” on 8th September 2021.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Mohapatra urged for proactive and timely delivery of committed activities. He also emphasized developing a better understanding of constraints in the farmers’ field. The DG stated that the ICAR Data Centre will be used for all data repositories and data analytics for knowledge transfer to the farming community.
Proper scientific positioning of each team concerning capabilities and deliveries committed needs to be exercised. It may interact with fast-growing Agri-start ups and other tech Institutes for objective-driven collaboration through Precision Agri-conclave to be organized soon.
The event was attended & addressed by several dignitaries, including:
Dr. Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management & Agriculture Engineering), ICAR & Chairman, Steering Committee of the Programme, highlighted the significant opportunities to harvest for better farms, including precision livestock farming and precision aquaculture.
Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR, emphasized the national importance of the program. The DDG stated that the program should have quantifiable indicators for monitoring and effective delivery.
Dr. Anil Rai, ADG (ICT), ICAR, briefed about the genesis, structure of monitoring, and evaluating the program’s system.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, accentuated the timely initiative of such a research program in the country.
The senior officials of ICAR Headquarters and Institutes also virtually participated in the event. The Network Programme has been developed initially involving 16 partner Institutes (covering 7 SMDs) with the ICAR-IARI as a lead.
Considering the challenges in Indian agriculture and opportunities in advances of technologies, digital ecosystem, and recent government initiatives, the programme is well designed to develop precision AG-Techs for sustained enhanced input use and production system with safe environment and quality produce to make agriculture a profit making enterprise.