10th National Symposium on: "Innovative Approaches Harnessing Agricultural Sciences for Society" held at MPKV, Rahuri during 21- 23 July 2015.

Recommendations

  1. There should be maximum utilization of solar energy for agriculture work. Out of Box Thinking or new thoughts are very much essential in the agriculture sector.
  2. There is a need for including the agriculture subject in primary education in view of large population (around 66 percent) which still lives in rural areas and 52 percent of them dependent on agriculture and allied sectors for livelihood. For this purpose the investment in agriculture education should be at least one percent of the GDP of agriculture sector.
  3. Agriculture emissions can be reduced by adopting conservation tillage, re-growth of perennial vegetation, reducing summer fallow, etc. Livestock and green house gases emission can be controlled by use of high quality forages, legumes in grazing rotations, alternate land use systems, encouraging organic farming, use of bio fuels, avoiding deforestation and promoting reforestation.
  4. In North- East region of India, Conservation Agriculture encompasses practices of zero tillage, crop diversification such as paddy followed by mustard, development of water harvesting structure (farm ponds), use of liquid bio-fertilizers and honey bee keeping practices. These practices have been found to enhance the net profit and sustainable production in North- East region of India.
  5. Enhancing the agriculture input use efficiency through best management practices, good agricultural practices and reducing the input cost for crop production is recommended.
  6. Adoption of Integrated Farming System comprising of horticulture and livestock is key to successful sustainable and profitable agriculture.
  7. Development of need based and practically feasible post harvest technologies and their application in establishment of small scale processing units at farm level.
  8. Establishing network of requirements for efficient food supply chain and brand oriented production of food products.
  9. Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) may be worked at University level for skill development amongst the youths.
  10. There is need to promote Diversified Agricultural System (DAS) for sustainable Agril. Production.
  11. The Govt. of India started Kisan Wani (24/7 hours) channel dedicated to farmers Community. In this context, more number of success stories of the respective KVK jurisdiction may be sent for wider publicity. Initiation of the innovative techniques like use of hydroponics, azolla etc. for amalgamation of existing drought condition is required.
  12. Conservation of region and resource specific indigenous breeds of all the livestock species.
  13. There is need to initiate the Animal Feed and Food Security Mission for the livestock on the basis of National Food Security Mission.