SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 3: Jharkhand Agriculture Minister Badal Patralekh on Friday announced setting up of a veterinary university and the second agricultural university in the state. He further talked about the government’s plans to construct a special hi-tech auditorium in memory of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the BAU campus.
Minister Patralekh was addressing people at the three-day state-level Agrotech Kisan Mela which began on Friday at the Birsa Agricultural University campus. Notably, technologies, products and services related to agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries, biotechnology, dairy technology and cottage industry have been displayed at about 150 stalls erected at the Mela ground.
He further stated that the state government would celebrate the International Year of Millets on a grand scale and provisions are being made for this purpose. “Jharkhand has an old tradition of cultivating Nutri cereals millets and we need to return to our roots on this front,” he added.
Jharkhand Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs minister Alamgir Alam, while speaking as the Chief Guest stressed launching a statewide drive for retaining rural youths in villages and farming so that self-reliance could come in villages and rural youths migration to cities in search of jobs could be checked. A country can prosper only if the farmer’s socio-economic condition improves, he added.
Secretary Agriculture Aboobaker Siddiqui urged the scientists to perfect cost-effective technologies for the state’s resource-poor farmers which could perform well under climate change scenarios also.
He stressed organising the agri fairs in all districts and blocks of the state for ensuring farm technology delivery at farmers’ doorsteps in villages. He said Jharkhand has now become self-reliant on the fish front also. At the time of carving out as a separate state, it was producing hardly 14000 tons of fish which has now increased to 2.5 lakh tons.
Welcoming the guests, BAU Vice Chancellor Dr Onkar Nath Singh said students of newly established colleges of BAU are securing top positions at the PG entrance examinations of leading farm universities and research institutes of the country which was a matter of pride. The university scientists released 15 improved varieties of different crops during the last 2 years and recently 2 new varieties of pigs have been identified.
Kanke MLA Samri Lal, NABARD CGM MS Rao and Director of ICAR-ATARI, Patna Dr Anjani Kumar also spoke on the occasion. Several important publications of the University were released by the guests.
Notably, since the United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, a thematic pandal has been dedicated to millets like finger millet, little millet, kodo millet, proso millet, foxtail millet, crown top millet, sorghum and pearl millet for creating awareness about the high nutrient content available in these millets and it’s processed products.
These lesser-used millets have higher protein, iron and minerals than those cereals like rice, wheat, maize etc. Biscuits, cookies, nut balls, gujhiya, laddu, shakkarpara, mixture, balushahi, nimki, chakli, dhuska, momo, dumbu, barfi, poha, mathri, chau, samosa, anarsa, muffin, cake, pasta, macaroni, flax etc made from these millets have been displayed for awareness and sale at the Mela.
Since farm mechanisation is an important factor for cost reduction in farming operations, about 90 hand-drawn, battery and power-operated, animal-drawn, tractor-drawn, motorized, renewable energy-dependent and women-friendly farm machinery and types of equipment suited for ploughing, sowing, transplanting, spraying, threshing and harvesting are also on display.
Eight farmers namely Suchita Devi, Dumka, Ayodhya Bind, Garhwa, Anshu Singh, Saraikela Kharsawan, Vikas Kumar, Sahebganj, Vijay Mahto, East Singhbhum, Radheshyam Prasad, Palamu, Bheem Rajak, Chatra and Gokul Prasad Yadav, Deoghar were felicitated on the occasion for their special contribution in innovative farming.
