New Delhi: Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced a series of initiatives to strengthen India’s agricultural sector while addressing the 98th Foundation Day celebrations of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi.
The minister unveiled a roadmap for ‘Viksit Krishi and Samruddh Kisan’ under the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. Key initiatives include developing 100 Climate-Smart Villages, extending ICAR technologies to 100 million farmers, launching the ‘One Institute-One Grand Innovation’ programme, establishing an ICAR Open Digital Knowledge Platform, strengthening laws against counterfeit seeds and pesticides, and making ICAR financially self-reliant through innovation and technology commercialisation.
Chouhan said the Foundation Day was an occasion to honour generations of agricultural scientists whose contributions helped transform Indian agriculture. He described farmers as the “soul” of agriculture and scientists as its “brain”, stressing that sustainable agricultural growth depends on the combined efforts of government, farmers and scientific research.
