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.
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