ICAR RC NEH celebrates Golden Jubilee & Farmers’ Expo 2025

10 January 2024, New Delhi: ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, celebrated its Golden Jubilee and Farmer’s Expo 2025 today.

The Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, delivered a recorded speech during the celebration, extending her congratulations to the Institute on completing 50 years of exceptional service and commitment. She highlighted that ICAR has developed numerous crop varieties, livestock breeds, and climate-resilient technologies tailored to the region’s agroclimatic conditions, significantly contributing to the enhancement of food and livelihood security. Over the past decade, food grain production has risen by 30%, while horticultural crop production has grown by 40%. Agri-based enterprises and allied sectors have played a key role in generating livelihoods and attracting youth to agriculture, leading to a 25% increase in agri-entrepreneurs among young people over the past five years, she added. Smt. Murmu emphasized the importance of documenting and validating indigenous resources, conserving germplasm, and integrating local knowledge with modern technologies.

Chief Guest, Mr. C.H. Vijayashankar, Hon’ble Governor of Meghalaya, in his inaugural speech, highlighted that agriculture is at the core of both the people and economy of India. He stressed that ICAR plays a leading role in agricultural research and development in the country, with its significant contributions to the development of crop varieties, livestock breeds, and integrated farming systems (IFS), all of which have greatly benefited the farming community. He also noted that the region is abundant in specialty crops like ginger and turmeric and serves as a hub for medicinal plants, Ayurveda, and other agricultural products.

Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, emphasized that the biodiversity of Meghalaya is a valuable asset to the region and called for a dedicated effort to develop a comprehensive roadmap. He stressed the need for improved coordination among ICAR institutes, agricultural universities, KVKs, and state departments. Given the region’s diverse agroclimatic zones, he highlighted the importance of a collaborative approach involving multiple departments, especially for developing a logistics hub, processing, value addition, and product pricing. Mr. Chouhan also underscored the importance of reducing the time taken for the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the field.

Mr. Conrad K. Sangma, Chief Minister, Meghalaya, commended ICAR’s contributions in high-yielding varieties, organic farming, and promoting agri-entrepreneurship among youth. Mr. Sangma highlighted the region’s potential to become a hub for crops like horticulture, honey, bamboo, and organic farming. He emphasized the need for large-scale technology transfer, better coordination, development of logistics hubs, improved shelf life of horticultural products, food processing, cluster development, a bamboo mission, and strengthening grassroots institutions like KVKs.

Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director General (ICAR) & Secretary (DARE), spoke about the region’s rich agro-biodiversity and organic farming. Considering the region’s fragile ecosystem, he emphasised the need to develop climate-resilient agriculture, and agriculture should be nature-, market-, culture-, and technology-friendly. Dr Pathak, while highlighting the tremendous achievement of the Institute in the past five decades, added that there are challenges that need to be focused on with more enthusiasm and dedication in the next 50 years. He urged upon the need to work to be a part of the Vikshit Bharat 2047.

Dr M. Amapareen Lyngdoh, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt of Meghalaya; Mr. D.P. Wahlang, Chief Secretary, Govt of Meghalaya; and Dr V.K. Mishra, Director, ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya, also graced the occasion.

The event was live-streamed, reaching approximately 20,000 farmers across 90 KVKs in the region, along with 6 Regional Centres of the Institute.

Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR, proposed the Vote of Thanks.

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