ICAR Awards 2005 Presented To Agricultural Scientist and Farmers

-- (18 August 2006)

In a tribute to rich farming traditions of the country, six farmers from different parts were honoured by ICAR for their achievement in respective fields. One of the awardees Shri Vishwasrao Kachare, coming from a landless labourer family to presently owning 120 ha of pomegranate orchards, is a story of rags to riches! He started farming on a land which was totally barren in 1985 with meagre monetary resources and today he exports pomegranate to many countries round the year. He did not merely sit on his laurels but helped other farmers follow his example by demonstrating and guiding thousands of farmers of Maharashtra and adjoining states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. This has helped increase the country’s pomegranate exports to 1000-1500 tones/annum till 2005 besides meeting the domestic demand of 1500-2000 tones of fruits. In view of his innovative approaches, radical change in management packages, breaking yield barriers in horticultural crops and his service to farming community, Shri Kachare was awarded Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puraskar (Rs.1 lakh).

Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puraskar is also being given to Shri Suresh Waghdhare. A practicing farmer for last 20 years, Shri Waghdhare’s farm is a live demonstration of poor farmers on how to operate sustainable farming system with low external inputs fully utilizing available local resources. In Livestock/Poultry/Fish Farming, the award has gone to Shri Sultan Singh from Karnal district of Haryana, for significant contribution in Fish Farming.

The N.G. Ranga Farmer Award for Diversified Agriculture has been conferred jointly on Smt. Vanita Gunjal, a lady farmer from Maharashtra and Shri S.K.Rabiul Haque from South 24-Paragana district of West Bengal for their outstanding contributions in vegetables and fruits production practicing hi-tech agriculture, and in growing fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants, nurseries and flowers integrated with dairying, respectively.

Director General of ICAR Dr. Mangala Rai said that the Council is making all out efforts in this direction through various innovative approaches. He said the awards instituted by ICAR recognize the fact that an appropriate incentive and reward system in an organization makes the performance of its employee’s proficient, productive and satisfying.

This year’s Best Institution Award has gone to the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. Besides human resource development in frontier areas and development of agro-technologies, the University has made visible strides in agri-business management, setting up of Information Technology and Biotechnology Parks and fostering industry-institution linkage.

The other award is bagged jointly by the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram and Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWCR&TI), Dehradun. The CTCRI contributed 16 varieties of tuber crops besides a bio-pesticide from cassava seeds and more than a dozen value added food products whereas the CSWCR&TI has done outstanding work in resource conserving technologies and efficient utilization and management of natural resources.

Among the National Research Centres/Project Directorates of ICAR, the Best Institution Award is bestowed upon the National Research Centre for Citrus, Nagpur for its valuable contribution towards overall development of citrus and citrus based industries.

Panjabrao Deshmukh Women Agricultural Scientist Awards were given to Dr Mandapaka Maheshwari and Dr (Mrs) Gita Kulshrestha. Their research contributions have led to genetic improvement towards drought tolerance in sorghum and in developing herbicide residue chemistry through pioneering work on several herbicide schedules and processes. The award of Rs.50,000 is given for outstanding contribution of applied and basic nature in their respective fields.

All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Potato, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla and AICRP on Castor, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad have jointly won the Chaudhary Devi Lal Outstanding AICRP Award for setting-up high standards of coordinated research resulting in a multifold increase in productivity and production of these crops.

Sixteen Jawaharlal Nehru Awards for outstanding Ph.D. theses were given of which eight have gone to young scientists of the State Agricultural Universities, six to ICAR institutes and two awards have gone to IIT, Kharagpur.

The Vasantrao Naik Award for Research Applications in Agriculture for 2005 has gone for development of alternate land use model to replace shifting cultivation in Meghalaya. Adoption of model offers improvement in food production system on sustainable basis in disadvantageous areas of the region through participatory approach.

The Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Awards have been given to ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya for development of six integrated farming system models to harness the benefit from the complementarities from crop-livestock-fish combinations, and to National Research Centre on Yak, Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh for the molecular genetics; and Ovysynch protocol studies in yaks, which will have tremendous impact on socio-economic conditions of tribal population of the NE Hill region.

The ICAR Team Awards have been given in the areas of insecticide resistance management in cotton, genetic enhancement of quality rice, enhancing water productivity, developing gadgets for various farming operations in coconut for reducing drudgery in farm workers, development of new varieties and hybrids of vegetable crops; brood stock improvement, genetic improvement of sheep, improved varieties and production technology of chicken and waster-resource development and agri-horti production system in the Himalayan foot hills.

Seven teachers have been honoured in the field of Agronomy, Plant Pathology, Agro-Chemicals, Fisheries, Veterinary Sciences and Social Sciences for their excellence in teaching.

Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Agricultural Journalism has gone to Shri R.S.Sharma, Executive Director of Compro, a journalist who has a distinction of serving the cause of Indian agriculture through various TV programmes on crop production in different agro-ecologies and documentaries on R&D contribution of various ICAR institutes. These popular TV programmes have helped in disseminating the technical knowledge and technologies to the farmers and getting their feedback.