What: Krishi Unnati Mela
Where: ICAR Pusa, New Delhi
When: March 16, 2018
- The three-day annual Krishi Unnati Mela began in New Delhi on March 16.
- Theme: The theme of the mela or fair is ‘doubling farmers’ income by 2022′.
- Objective: The objective of the event is to create awareness among farmers about the latest agriculture-related technological developments.
- The mela is being held at the Pusa campus of Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi.
- Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will address the annual ‘Krishi Unnati Mela’ at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, IARI Pusa campus in the capital on March 17.
- Prime Minister will unveil a portal on organic farming and lay the foundation stone of 25 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
- The Prime Minister will also confer the “Krishi Karman” and “Deen Dayal Upadhya Krishi vigyan Protsahan” awards on this occasion.
About Krishi Unnati Mela
- Every year, IARI organizes farmers fair during the late of rabi season. More than a lakh
farmers and entrepreneurs visit the fair to gain first-hand experience of many cutting edge
technologies of agriculture and interact with specialists for solving problems related to farm
technology. - From past two years, the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela has been elevated to a National
Level Fair “Krishi Unnati Mela”.
About Krishi Vighyan Kendra (KVK)
- The KVK is a grass root level institution designed and devoted to impart need-based and skill-oriented vocational training to the practicing farmers, in-service extension personnel and to those who wish to go in for self-employment through “learning by doing”.
- In 2016, the Central Government announced opening of at least one Krishi Vigyan Kendra in all districts of the country to provide advanced Agriculture technical assistance to the farmers near their farms itself.
- The mandate of KVK is Technology Assessment and Demonstration for its Application and Capacity Development.
- To implement the mandate effectively, the following activities are envisaged for each KVK.
- On-farm testing to assess the location specificity of agricultural technologies under various farming systems.
- Frontline demonstrations to establish production potential of technologies on the farmers’ fields.
- Capacity development of farmers and extension personnel to update their knowledge and skills on modern agricultural technologies.
- To work as Knowledge and Resource Centre of agricultural technologies for supporting initiatives of public, private and voluntary sector in improving the agricultural economy of the district.
- Provide farm advisories using ICT and other media means on varied subjects of interest to farmers
- In addition, KVK produce quality technological products (seed, planting material, bio-agents, livestock) and make it available to farmers, organize frontline extension activities, identify and document selected farm innovations and converge with ongoing schemes and programmes within the mandate of KVK.
- Some features
- Monthly, quarterly and half yearly monitoring was enforced.
- The KVKs are being sanctioned to only those Institutions who have at least 5 years of experience of working in Agriculture.
- While sanctioning KVKs to NGOs, it has been made mandatory for the host Institution to mortgage about 20.0 ha of land in the favor of ICAR.
- The monitoring process has also been initiated at the district level in convergence with related Departments by constituting advisory committee and Action Plans.
