3 days National Seminar on Agriculture and More beyond 4.0 concluded at Shalimar Campus of SKUAST-Kashmir.

Srinagar 28 May, 2022: 03 days National Seminar on Agriculture and More beyond 4.0 concluded at Shalimar Campus of SKUAST-Kashmir. The Seminar was organized by Society for Community Mobilization for sustainable development in collaboration with SKUAST-Kashmir & Jammu. Shri Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, GoJK was Chief Guest during the Valedictory function which was earlier inaugurated by Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Shri Manoj Sinha.
Shri Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, GoJK, while speaking on the valedictory function congratulated both universities for highlighting important issues in agriculture farming 4.0 and Beyond. Speaking on the occasion he stressed on necessity of refining strategies and devising programmes to bring smile to farmers. He highlighted the role of universities in devising land use plans, crop modeling, use of ICT tools & services, innovations, Artificial Intelligence, Marketing interventions and complete value changes for transforming farmers into entrepreneurs. He informed that Government of J&K will start digital agriculture mission soon to further boost programmes in agriculture and allied sectors for which sufficient financial support shall be met. On the occasion he felicitated Scientists, Students, Research-Scholars, Progressive farmers, Innovators in the field of agriculture. Among others Prof. M.C. Sharma former Vice-Chancellor IVRI was felicitated with Life-time Achievement Award and Professor. N.A. Ganai Vice-Chancellor SKUAST-Kashmir conferred with the Academic Excellence Award. Organizing Secretaries Dr. Sameera Qayoom with Imriti Devi Outstanding Women Scientist Award and Dr. R.R. Barman were conferred Special Recognition Award during the event.
Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganai in his concluding remarks informed that Jammu & Kashmir is transforming into a major significant agricultural hub of the country based on revised policy decisions and reforms undertaken in recent past. Concerted efforts to promote knowledge based & technology driven innovations, data driven real time solutions and precision agriculture tools, Artificial Intelligence, mechanization, automation market intervention besides creating global image for education, research and agricultural products.
Prof. J.P. Sharma and President Community Mobilization for sustainable development outlined challenges faced by agriculture sector and possible policy decisions to mitigate them for farmers welfare. He laid stress on processing, packaging, labeling, certification, agri-business management and improving the skills of farmers and marketing of agri-products. He further desired that we have to move from productivity to profitability in order to increase share of agriculture GDP of the country.
Dr. Sachin Gupta, Chancellor Sanskriti University in his remarks thanked organizers of both the Universities for conducting the event which shall help the Scientist/Scholars/Farmers to share common platform and devise solutions to the growing issues in agricultural sector. An MoU between both farm universities was signed in presence of Additional Chief Secretary, Shri Atal Dulloo to boost collaboration in entrepreneurship and R&D sectors.
Dr. Sarfaraz Ahmad Wani, Director Research/Convener summarized the key recommendations of the Conference. More than 500 papers, 284 presentations, 100 poster presentations, 15 lead papers, 16 publications, 04 keynote papers were presented under different themes by Delegates/Scientists/Research-Scholars to deliberate on issues concerning agriculture and the way forward. During the Conference it came to fore that scientists/policy makers have to move beyond agriculture 4.0 have to create new age agricultural revolution based on science and green technology which can provide growth and sustainability to agriculture and allied sectors. Special focus need to be granted on crop planning, disease forecasting, water/nutrient management, value addition, e-commerce, FPOs and reduction in post-harvest losses by use of advanced tools and technologies. Books/manuals on organic vegetable/vegetable seed production/strawberry/kiwi/grape cultivation were released.

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