61st Convocation of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
25 February 2023, New Delhi: Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) organized its 61st Convocation in the Bharat Ratna Shri C Subramanium Hall of NASC complex, New Delhi on 24th February 2023. For the Convocation of the Institute, Jagdeep Dhankar, Hon’ble Vice President, Govt. of India graced the occasion as the chief guest of the function.
The program was also attended by Union Minster of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Chaudhary Ji as the guest of Honour during the event. Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary of DARE, and Director General, ICAR, Sunil Kumar Gupta, Secretary, Vice President, GOI also attended the program with Dr. A. K. Singh, Director; Dr. Anupama Singh, Dean and Joint Director (Education); Dr. Viswanathan Chinnusamy, Joint Director (Research) and Dr. Rabindranath Padaria, Joint Director (Extension) of ICAR-IARI.
During the convocation, Hon’ble Vice President awarded IARI merit medals to 5 M.Sc. students and 5 students receiving their doctoral degrees. He also awarded IARI Best Student Award 2022 to Rahul Kumar, a doctoral student of the Division of Genetics, and NABARD-Professor VL Chopra Gold Medal-2022 to MSc student, Tarun Sharma, Division of Agronomy. He also presented Dr. H.K. Jain Memorial Young scientist award to Dr. Amlendu Ghosh, Senior Scientist, Division of Plant Pathology, for the year 2021 and to Dr. Aditi Kundu, Senior Scientist, Division of Agricultural Chemicals, IARI for the year 2022. In this convocation, a total of 402 students, including those from India and other countries, who studied at IARI under international programs, have received their Post Graduate and Doctoral degrees.
On this occasion, Hon’ble Vice President released different varieties of field crops and flower crops. In wheat, 10 varieties were released including HD 3406 and HD 3407, HD 3369, HI 1650 (Pusa Ojaswi), HI 1653 (Pusa Jagrati), HI 1654 (Pusa Aditi), HI 1655 (Pusa Harsha), HI 8826 (Pusa Poshtik) and HI 8830 (Pusa Kirti), in Rice two varieties PB 1882 and Pusa Sambha 1853, in chickpea, Pusa JG-16 – a drought tolerant variety, in mustard Pusa Mustard-34: in flowers two varieties of Rose (Pusa Lakshmi and Pusa Bhargava); 2 Marigold varieties (Pusa Parv and Pusa Utsav); and one variety each of Gladiolus (Pusa Rajat); Chrysanthemum (Pusa Lohit) and Bougainvillea(Pusa Akansha).
He also released three publications including a textbook on “Basics of Agro-Chemical Formulations: Highlighting the Importance of Expanding the Domain of Agrochemical Research and Development”; PG School Annual Report 2021-22 and Agro-Startup Innovation (A compilation by ZTMBPD unit).
In his address, Mr. Dhankar congratulated all the students who received postgraduate and doctoral degrees and the esteemed faculty who received awards for their excellence in research and academics. He appreciated the role of IARI in providing technological advancements for the country’s spectacular rise as an agricultural powerhouse in the global arena by securing several firsts in the production of many crops and livestock products and the presence of highly skilled, qualified, and experienced human resources in agriculture, along with budding young generation equipped with latest knowledge and skills, evoke a sense of confidence and security to combat the emerging challenges in agriculture.
He congratulated that the technologies developed in the lab are reaching land, and he urged that now the lab must shift to the land. He urged the intelligentsia of agriculture to study avenues to enter the new era of agriculture with cutting-edge technologies supported by the realm of pure science and technology. He also mentioned that innovation in making agricultural implements should be taken up on a larger scale. He emphasized that efforts should be made for the value addition of farm produce at the farm level. He expressed his confidence that Indian agricultural research will serve the nation in an incremental trajectory with innovations, quality human resources, and technological adaptation in the agriculture and farm sector.
In his address, Dr. A. K. Singh, Director, IARI informed all about the IARI wheat varieties such as HD2967, HD 3086, and others that are cultivated in nearly 15 million ha and contribute approximately 60 million tons of wheat to the Nation’s granary. Currently, the Pusa Basmati rice varieties account for 90% of the total foreign exchange. In the current year, IARI is going to add five Basmati paddy varieties i.e. PB-1847, PB-1885, and PB-1886, and two herbicide tolerant varieties e.g. PB-1979 and PB-1985, the last two being especially suitable for the DSR farming in northern plains. Not only developing varieties, but IARI also ensures the availability of them to the farmers regularly. The institute produced 707.92 tonnes of seeds of cereal, pulse, and oil seed varieties. The primary stakeholders of agriculture are the farmers and extension plays the ultimate role in the success of any discovery or invention. The extension activities of IARI have been spread all over India through innovative extension programs. All the varieties of IARI have produced significantly higher yields compared to the local varieties.
Dr. Anupama Singh, Dean and Joint Director (Education) informed that IARI has added a new chapter to its rich human-resource development process by opening up its door to undergraduate teaching. Under the New Education Policy, the first batch of 306 undergraduate students at IARI and outreach centers in various programs has been initiated. The students have been admitted to B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture at IARI New Delhi, IARI, Jharkhand, and IARI, Assam. IARI has also started UG programs for the B.Tech. (Agril. Engineering), B. Tech (Biotechnology), and B.Sc. (Hons.) Community Science at IARI in collaboration with its sister institutes.
Also Read: Union Budget 2023: An Overview of the Focus on Agriculture
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