Proceedings of Zonal Workshop 2014

Proceedings of Annual Zonal Workshop of KVKs, Zone II held at NIRJAFT, Kolkata during 2-3 June 2014

 

The inaugural session of Annual Zonal Workshop of KVKs under Zone-II was illuminated in the presence of Prof. C.S. Ckakraborty, VC, WBUAFS; Dr. D. Nag, Director, NIRJAFT; Dr. A.K.Singh, ZPD; Dr. N. Awasthi, Coordinator-Eastern India and Bangladesh, IPI; Dr. K. Majumder; Director, IPNI. Other dignitaries present on the occasion were DEEs of BAU, Ranchi; BAU, Sabour; RAU, Pusa; UBKV, Coochbehar; BCKV, Mohanpur and WBUAFS, Kolkata. Dr. H.K. De, PS, ZPD welcomed all the dignitaries as well as participants to this august gathering which was followed by felicitation of the honorable dignitaries.

 

Dr. A.K. Singh, ZPD in his address presented the salient achievements of this zone. He informed the house that as many as 18 farmers of this zone were awarded this year by different organizations of repute at national and state level and urged upon the PCs to increase the number at least to 28 next year. He also mentioned about the active collaboration of this zone with scores of international organizations, like including IRRI, IPNI, ICARDA etc. and national organizations, PDADMAS, IARI, IVRI, CIAE etc. Dr. Singh emphasized on adoption of farming system approach by the KVKs in order to optimize resource utilization and maximize profit besides upholding of environmental benignity. In this connection he informed the House about steps taken at ZPD level to establish active collaboration of this zone with PDFSR, Modipuram. He mentioned about active collaboration of 14 KVKs of this zone in NIFTD with IGFRI, Jhansi. Regarding achievement of mandated activities of KVK like OFT, FLD, training and seed production, he expressed his satisfaction but urged upon the KVKs to improve further. He put due stress on upholding soil fertility and quality for sustainable production to maintain food and nutritional security of the country and in this context he informed that all KVKs would get soil testing laboratory in the current plan with selected KVKs to get soil micronutrient testing facility as well. He also urged the KVKs to keep in readiness the contingent plan for kharif 2014 to address climatic vulnerability, particularly in the event of less precipitation or prolonged dry spell. He was all praise about the loads of HRD programmes conducted at DEE level of agricultural universities and the amount of revenue generated by KVKs of this zone.

 

Dr. D. Nag, Director, NIRJAFT and Guest of Honour during the occasion emphasized on strengthening synergy between ICAR institutes and KVKs for holistic dissemination of frontline technologies developed by ICAR institutes. He briefed the gathering about the farmer friendly technologies developed by NIRJAFT and called upon the directorate for collaboration to extend these technologies to every corner of the zone. He did point out that soil and water conservation aspect under NICRA could be improved through use of jute geotextiles and other blended jute fabrics developed by NIRJAFT. He expressed gratitude to the ZPD for letting two KVKs of this zone, namely, West Midnapore KVK and North Dinajpur KVK, to explore the suitability of technologies of NIRAFT to their respective districts under TSP programme of his institute.

 

This was followed by brief comments of Dr. N. Awasthi and Dr. K. Majumder, from IPI and IPNI, respectively. Dr. Awasthi opined that there has to be more cooperation and cohesion among IPI and the KVKs to have significant and sustainable impact in soil-crop-animal-human continuum so far as potassium nutrition is concerned. Dr. Majumder in is opening remarks enlightened the house about motto of IPNI and its spread across the world. In view of the declining productivity vis-à-vis soil fertility of the region, he urged upon devising suitable decision support systems or tools for plant nutrition that can maintain soil fertility in conjunction with environmental footprints. He cited the example of “Nutrient Expert” that his organization has devised in this direction and that his association with the KVKs of this zone in conduction of demonstrations on maize and wheat aided by the “Nutrient Expert” system.

 

Ten publications by different KVKs were released by Guests of Honour which included “Awardee Farmers” by ZPD, Zone-II; “Small but Smart Farmers” by BAU, Bhagalpur; “Journey of KVK Bhagalpur 2005-14” by KVK Bhagalpur; “Location Specific Changes in SRI: Towards Productivity augmentation and Holistic Dissemination In West Bengal” by KVK Burdwan; “Sustainable Agricultural Practices for rural entrepreneurship development“ By KVK , Dakshin Dinajpur and few newsletters by KVKs of Rohtas, Lakhisarai, Katihar and Jehanabad.

 

Prof. C. S. Chakraborty, VC, WBUAFS and Chief Guest of the session, in his inaugural speech, advocated for a ‘Sustainable Revolution’ in Indian agriculture with the lessons learnt from Green, Blue, White, Yellow and Pink revolutions which revolutionized Indian agriculture at different times in independent India. He justified his point by reminding the house that although we are forerunners in total production of many crops and livestock products, productivity wise we are lagging far behind the leaders and unless some drastic measures be taken forthright, our country may well be food and nutrition insecure in the years to come. In his views environment friendly integrated farming modules should be the order of the day towards resource optimization vis-à-vis productivity maximization where KVKs around the country has a leading role to play. He maintained that KVKs need to be further strengthened through more cohesion with line departments and coordination among all stakeholders in order to have tangible impact in every district.

 

The session concluded with vote of thanks by Dr. S.K. Mondal, PS, ZPD, Zone-II.

 

Technical session – 1:

Chairman:                  Dr. A.K. Singh, Zonal Project Director, ZPD, Zone II, Kolkata

Co- Chairman:          Dr. D. Basu, DEE, BCKV

Rapporteurs:             Dr. K.S. Das, Senior Scientist, ZPD &

Dr Asim Kumar Maity, PC, KVK, Kapgari

  1. Mrs. Savita Pramanik, awardee farmer of Bankura District, explained her success story. She came in contact with KVK in 2004 and formed a SHG group. Initially, the group started to produce quality seed of ground nut and paddy through SRI technique. Side by side they produced 5 lakh forest saplings and sold to the forest dept. She has been awarded by ADA (Sonamukhi), Krishi Ratna Award by Chief Minister of West Bengal and by Mahendra Sambridhi Award. House appreciated her performance in this field. She proposed her future plan of work like seed production and supply to the farmers through organic farming.
  2. Dr. P. P. Pal, PS of Zone – II presented an analysis of 5yrs. trend in activities of the KVK’s of Zone – II. He observed the following trends in his presentation –
  • Front Line Demonstration, conducted during Kharif and Rabi oilseed, had decreasing trend in terms of area and no. of farmers.
  • Front Line Demonstration, conducted on pulses during Kharif, also depicted declining trend but in Rabi it had increasing trend in terms of area as well as no. of farmers.
  • Front Line Demonstration, conducted on livestock and other enterprises were in increasing trend.
  • All types of trainings i.e. PF, RY, EF and sponsored showed increasing trend.

 

  1. Dr. S.K. Mondal, PS of Zone – II, discussed the importance of different reports and about their timely submission.

 

  1. Dr H K De, PS discussed about the progress of National Farmers Portal and various issues related to sending SMS using the portal. He also made a brief presentation about Tribal sub Plan, small but smart farmer and a decade of work done by the KVKs.
  2. Dr. F.H. Rahman, SS of Zone – II, discussed the present status of NICRA Project continuing in different KVKs of Zone-II.
  3. Dr. S.K. Roy, PS of Zone – II, pointed out the status of data filled by different KVKs. He stressed that reporting of data need to be improved.

 

Technical session – 2:

Chairman:     Dr. D.P.Patra, General Manager (Marketing) IFFCO ltd

Rapporteur:   Dr. F.H. Rahman, Senior Scientist, ZPD

 

There were two presentations by invited speakers and the session was on Plant nutrients and human health. Dr. Soumitra Das, Director-India program, Zinc Nutrient initiative, IZA, New Delhi delivered lecture on Zinc in crops and Human health.

Dr Neeraj Awasthi, International Potash Institute talked about KVK-IPI partnership in promoting use of potassium in agriculture.

 

Technical session – 3:

Chairman: Dr. R.K. Sohane, DEE, BAU Bhagalpur

Co-Chairman: Dr. H.Bhattacharya, DEE UBKV

Rapporteur(s):1. Dr. N.C.Sahu, Programme Co-ordinator, Sasya Shyamala KVK,

                               Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University

  1. Dr. Manas Bhattacharjee, Programme Co-ordinator, Kalyan KVK, Purulia.

Technical Session- 4:

Chairman: Dr. J. P. Upadhyay, DEE, RAU

Rapporteaur: 1. Dr. N.C.Sahu, PC, Sasya Shyamala KVK,

  1. Dr. Manas Bhattacharjee, PC, Kalyan KVK

Technical Session -5

Chairman       :           Dr. R.P.S. Ratan, DEE, BAU, Ranchi

Co-chairman :           Dr. A. K. Jaiswal, Pr. Scientist, IINRG, Ranchi

Rapporteurs :           (i) Dr. (Mrs.) Sailabala Dei, PC, KVK, Rohtas

(ii) Dr. (Mrs.) A.B. Ekka, In-Charge PC, KVK, East Singhbhum

 

In the session 3, 4 and 5 KVKs made presentation on the progress report and the action plan for the year 2014-15. Following recommendations emerged-

 

Recommendations:

 

  1. OFTs must be planned based on the problems identified through PRA, field visit and interaction with the farmers as well as thrust areas of the district.
  2. Specific role of KVK for entrepreneurship development should be clarified. It should not be limited to only capacity building through training, other things like market linking, packaging etc should also be mentioned.
  • All the DEEs are requested to send a report on the effect of cyclone “Phailin” on the economic loss of farmers due to the loss of plants and animals to ZPD.
  1. In the proforma column title ‘crop’ of the table for report of Frontline Demonstration may be changed as ‘Crop/Enterprise and Technologies’ so that there remains no confusion about filling up of Technologies associated with crop or enterprise in reporting the FLDs.
  2. Number of demonstration will be equal to the number of farmers. However, attempt should be made to organize the demonstrations in cluster for better impact.
  3. In many KVKs no. of posts are lying vacant particularly under SAU run KVKs. The Zonal Project Director requested the DEEs to take immediate and appropriate action to fill up those posts.
  • KVKs desirous of having collaborative activities with agencies other than Government, would obtain approval of the ZPD. The proposal for collaboration must be within the mandated activities of KVK. Information/data generated from these activities must be reflected in the annual report.
  • The selected KVKs under NIFTD should conduct FLD from the existing budget of KVK only. Further, they should produce fodder seed/slip in the KVK farm itself to carry out demonstration in the coming years also. IGFRI, Jhansi may not provide seed in the subsequent years.
  1. The KVKs should initiate developing contingent plan to counter adverse climatic situation during kharif 2014. The farmers should also be made aware followed by making arrangements for critical inputs, advisories, information etc. in collaboration with SAUs/ICAR institutes and development departments working at the district level.
  2. Fund to the KVKs carrying out NICRA could not be released due to non-receipt of AUC. The KVKs should expedite the matter.
  1. The DEEs must ensure that SAC is conducted in all the KVKs. Intimation for Secretary/Director, Agriculture; District Collector and Director, SAMETI may be obtained from DEEs by the Programme Coordinators regarding date of SAC meeting for participation of line department officials as well as to avoid convening any programme at the district level on that particular date.
  2. Overseeing of KVKs by the DEEs must be strengthened
  3. Only DEE, sabour is sending compiled report of all the 20 KVKs under its administrative control. Other DEEs are requested to send compiled report to ZPD.
  4. The DEEs should submit proposed HRD programme well in advance to ZPD office so as to avoid repetition of programmes, cover most of the KVK staff and to enable the ZPD to coordinate the programmes effectively.
  5. Training programme on Entrepreneurship Development should be conducted at the level of DEE for the benefit of the KVKs. Scientists from ZPD may act as resource persons in such training.
  6. KVK’s Mandatory work should not be compromised at the cost of other activities taken up by KVKs.
  7. All Programme Coordinators are advised to cover maximum thematic areas rather than concentration only on few areas repeated years after years. Awareness programme on PPV&FRA may also be taken up.
  8. Precaution should be taken while compiling/categorizing data of different thematic areas.
  9. Reporting data needs to be improved further by the KVKs.
  10. All reports should be submitted to the ZPD, Kolkata within the stipulated time for further compilation and onward submission.
  11. All PCs are directed to send their reports to zpdkolkata@gmail.com and sk_mondal@gmail.com.
  12. Few KVKs are still using the old mail id : zpd2kolkata@gmail.com. Please note that this is no longer in operation.
  13. The KVKs should give priority on fish fingerling production to achieve the set target.
  14. At the DEE level there is a need to have one day workshop to find out the reasons of fluctuating performance of KVKs in the mandated activities. This will help in streamlining the performance of KVKs on a steady manner.
  15. List of equipments of soil water testing laboratory that requires replacement may be submitted to ZPD. At least 1000 soil/water samples must be analyzed by each KVK. Soil health card for the farmers in adopted villages may be prepared.
  16. Brown manuring in direct seeded rice to be taken up on large scale as it is very low cost intervention.
  17. Success stories/farm innovations to be regularly documented.
  18. Annual Utilization Certificate must be submitted on time.

 

Valedictory session

Chairman:                  Dr. D. Nag, Chairman, NIRJAFT

Co-Chairman:           Dr. P. P. Pal, Principal Scientist, ZPD. ZONE II

Rapporteurs:             Dr. K. K. Goswami, PC, Nadia, Dr. S. Mukherjee, PC, Howrah

 

Dr. A. K. Maity, Rapporteur of Technical Session I; Dr. F. Rahaman, Rapporteur of Technical Session II ; Dr. N. C, Sahu, Rapporteur of Technical Session III & IV;  Ms. Sailabala Dei, Rapporteur of Technical Session V presented salient recommendations of the sessions respectively.

Dr. P.P. Pal in his brief remark emphasized KVKs to work on Mission mode and to use available manpower very judiciously to facilitate mandatory activities. Dr. Pal requested all KVK colleagues to improve the quality of presentation.

Dr, A, K, Singh, ZPD, Zone II praised all KVKs regarding improvement of extension activities both in terms of quantity and quality. ZPD requested DEEs of Bihar and Jharkhand to review and finalize Action plan for 2014-15 for Bihar and Jharkhand KVKs within next 15 days. Dr. Singh also discussed in nut shell about possible linkage of World Bank with West Bengal KVKs.

Dr. D. Nag, Chairman of session heartily congratulated Agricultural Extension Division of ICAR, DDG (Ag. Extension), all ZPDs and KVKs to achieve the composite RFD score of 99.70 which is really commendable. All KVKs have played pivotal role in this achievement. Dr. Nag in his address highlighted – Critical imbalance of natural resources, immediate attention on crop diversification in rain fed areas, Low cost effective technologies for small and marginal farmers and Farm Mechanization.

 

 

At the end, Dr. F. H. Rahaman, Senior Scientist, ZPD, ICAR proposed vote of thanks.

 

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