ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Pune organized a two-day Annual Action Plan Workshop of KVKs in Maharashtra in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes at ICAR-NRCG, Pune during 22-23 February, 2023. The workshop was inaugurated today.

In his inaugural address, Dr. V. M. Mayande, Former Vice-Chancellor, PDKV, Akola explained the significance of increasing farmers’ income and the ways of increasing farm income, particularly through diversifying towards non-farm activities. He urged the participants to work on priority areas like the application of Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, drones, and robotics in agriculture, the promotion of group farming, and Farmer Producer Organizations. He also stressed the responsibility of the KVKs to understand ground-level problems and emphasized the impact of agricultural research on the Indian Economy.

Dr. D. B. Deosarkar, DEE, VNMKV, Parbhani briefed different phases of crop diversification and highlighted the importance of millets especially Bajra and Sorghum in the context of Maharashtra state. He urged for following the practice of intercropping of pulses and oilseeds in the state.

Dr. Kaushik Banerjee, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Pune in his welcome address emphasized the importance of grapes and urged on facilitating more agro-based and other advisories by developing various apps in different crops.

The Heads of 50 KVKs of Maharashtra will present their action plan for the upcoming year 2023 on the occasion.

The Experts gave their valuable suggestions for developing a realistic action plan for KVKs. A total of 85 participants attended the event.