The 25th Regional Committee Meeting of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the eight North East was held today online.
The meeting aimed to provide a forum for agricultural researchers, state government functionaries and other stakeholders to discuss the gaps and priorities of agricultural research, education, and extension for the next two years.
The chief guest at the occasion was Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in the presence of ICAR secretary Sanjay Garg, DARE secretary Trilochan Mohapatra and others.
A short presentation was given on the theme of the meeting and the panelists were apprised about the significant achievements of the agriculture, livestock, and fisheries sectors of North East India, though it was noted that there is still a supply deficit of meat and milk in the region.
Choudhary highlighted the importance of agricultural development in the North East for the overall development of the country and emphasized on development of regional-specific crop varieties, popularization of integrated farming system, stemming of decline in North East livestock population, farm mechanization, and building awareness on FPO formation for development of the region. He has also urged the agricultural scientists to give focus on mission mode programmes, such as bamboo mission, oil palm mission, honey bee mission, etc for economic growth in the region.
VK Mishra, the Director of ICAR North East, presented the action taken report of the previous RCM. Of 50 issues flagged by the North East states during the 24th meeting, the majority of the issues were solved. In this 25th RCM, the state-wise agenda and various problems related to agriculture were discussed in detail and were decided to be addressed in a time-bound manner.
Officials from the agricultural, livestock, and fisheries departments of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, officials of ICAR, directors, and scientists from ICAR institutes, Vice-Chancellors and officials of Assam Agricultural University and Central Agricultural University attended the meeting.
