Inauguration of the workshop by Dr. S. Bhaskar, Assistant Director General (AAF & CC), ICAR, New Delhi
To bring up faster relationship with industry and academia for longer duration and to enable students to get connected with alumni and entrepreneurial network the workshop was organized on Academia- Industry Interface Conclave for future farming organized under World Bank funded ICAR-NAHEP-IDP project at UAS, Dharwad on 27.11.2020. Dr. K.V. Ashalatha, Associate Co-ordinator, IDP, introduced the IDP project to students and welcomed the guests and participants.
Dr. S. Bhaskar, Assistant Director General (AAF & CC), ICAR, New Delhi, inaugurated the workshop and expressed that agriculture production and cultivated area has increased by 25 percent during corona pandemic period and reverse migration is one of the reasons for increased production. India stands first in the vegetable and fruit production with 315 millions tones of production in Horticulture, and 298 million tunes of crop production and exporting plenty of farm produce during the current scenario he added. He appealed to emphasize the organic crop production in Western Ghatregions. He also suggested to improve crop productivity using biotechnology, adapting climate smart agriculture and growing climate resilient crops. He recollected the Prime Minister’s slogan “hur maid pe ped” that will reduce the carbon foot prints to mitigate the adverse affects of climate change on agriculture..
Dr. M.B. Chetti, Vice Chancellor, during his presidential address opined that proper storage of agricultural produce is more important as the agricultural production is sufficientlylarge if we do not waste the food. Hence agricultural students need to think of start-up and entrepreneurship opportunities in storage and value addition as there is ample scope in food industry. He also provided the examples of our Alumni students who have set an example of successful entrepreneurs. The resource person, Dr. Venkatesh Kulkarni, Advisor-Nath Bio-Genes, India and Aleenah Agriculture Services Co. Ltd., Sudan shared his experience on opportunities in seed industry for domestic and export market. He admired that India stands at14thposition in exporting the vegetable seeds because MNC’s and overseas companies have identified India as good seed production country with higher awareness of favorable policies and quality assurance. Mr. Mahesh Patil, Founder, Director NVIECO Agri Pvt. Ltd., explained opportunities on agro tourism and rural tourism. He expressed that Agro-tourism encompasses a wide variety of activities and provides a means for farmers to diversify and supplement their income. It also helps in agricultural operations for the purpose of enjoyment, education, or other active involvement. Opportunities in agro-chemical industry was explained by Mr. ManjunathSanu, Samarth Bio-Tech., Hubli and Entrepreneurial opportunities in marketing of primary and secondary agri-produce was explained by Mr. Rohan Kulkarni, Founder, Freshboxx , Hubli. This workshop was organized by Dr. B.N. Arvindkumar and Dr. S. S. Dolli, Nodal officers, IDP.