New Delhi: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh has said that Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University has begun work on five new themes targeted by Union Agriculture Ministry for the development of agriculture sector. These include “har khet ko pani”, increase the production of pulses, soil health, doubling farmers’ income and more crop per drop. He informed that in two years, positive results have started to appear. Major works include irrigation through solar power and single phase pumps, seed production of pulse crops, soil testing in farmers’ fields through six mobile soil testing laboratories, food processing to double the income of farmers, mushroom production, honey production, research on reduction of post-harvest losses and efficient irrigation system.
Speaking on the occasion of the first convocation ceremony of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar) he stated that the Modi government has granted a lot of support to strengthen this University. Horticulture and Forestry College, Centre of Excellence on Embryo transfer & indigenous breed, a new centre for beekeeping, modern processing center for jaggery production etc are important steps in this direction. Apart from this, a center for Sahiwal breed in Bettiah, training centre by National Cooperative Development Corporation, seed storage and sale centre by National Seeds Corporation, fish production by cage culture in all KVKs are also proposed. Shri Singh said that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has launched four new projects to accelerate the ‘Lab to Farm’ programme for all-round development of agriculture. In order to increasing the connectivity of farmers with scientists, technical assessment, evaluation, training and capacity building, the government has initiated the Farmer First program.
Considering the importance of capacity development for entrepreneurship in rural youth, Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) program has been started and in order to create new opportunities of employment generation for the youth in agriculture and to prevent their migrations, Attracting and Retaining of Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) has been started. The Minister said that under the “Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav” program, agricultural experts of agricultural universities and ICAR have been given the responsibility of a village in order to create awareness among farmers about scientific farming. The Minister hoped that the university is soon counted among the leading universities of the country and the seeds & technologies developed here bring prosperity to the farmers of Bihar and the country thereby doubling their income.
