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Linking of innovative agriculture technologies to farms

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Economy
  • Published
    22nd Jun, 2021

The Centre will work towards linking innovative agricultural technologies with the farms under the Biotech-KISAN program in the Northeastern region.

Context

The Centre will work towards linking innovative agricultural technologies with the farms under the Biotech-KISAN program in the Northeastern region.

About the initiative

  • Under the program, the local issues of farmers are to be considered and they would be provided with the scientific solutions.
  • The program is targeted to benefit small and marginal farmers, especially women.
  • The program is an initiative supported by the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science & Technology.
  • The hubs in NER will collaborate with the top scientific institutions across the country as well as State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) / Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) / existing state agriculture extension services/system and other farmers’ organizations.

Why North East Region is chosen?

  • The North-East Region is predominantly agrarian and 70 percent of its workforce is engaged in agriculture and allied sectors for livelihood.
  • However, the region produces merely 1.5 percent of the country’s food grain. It depends on imports for its domestic consumption.
  • The NE region has untapped potential to enhance the income of the farming population by promoting location-specific crops, horticultural and plantation crops, fisheries, and livestock production.

Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN)

  • Biotech-KISAN is a scientist-farmer partnership scheme.
  • It was launched in 2017.
  • It aims for agriculture innovation.
  • Its objective is to connect science laboratories with the farmers to find out innovative solutions and technologies to be applied at the farm level.
  • So far 146 Biotech-KISAN Hubs have been established under the scheme.
    It covers all 15 agroclimatic zones and 110 aspirational districts in the country.
  • The scheme has benefitted over two lakh farmers so far by increasing their agriculture output and income.

Verifying, please be patient.

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