Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023 held in New Delhi

The three-days (02-04 th March, 2023) Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela with the theme of
‘Nutritional, Food and Environmental security through millets (Sree Anna)’ organized at the
sprawling campus of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. On the 3 rd day
of mela two technical sessions were organised. The first technical session was chaired by Sh.
Dayashankar Singh, Head, Farmers Producers Organisation Association of Uttar Pradesh and
Co-chaired by Dr Neeru Bhushan, ADG, IPM&TM, ICAR, New Delhi. Dr Ashok Kumar
Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the Chairman, Co-chairman and panellist of the
session and requested to panellists to share their experiences of start-ups with farmers. Sh.
Rahul Dhingra, Co-founder, F2DF, Sh. Avinash Shukla, Founder of Ramraj Services Pvt.
Ltd. and Sh. Sudhir Ingle, Director, Maharashtra FPC, Pune shared their experiences that,
how the farmers can make a strong FPO for getting better price of their produce.

The second session was chaired by Dr K. V. Prabhu, Former Chairperson, Protection of Plant
Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, Government of India, New Delhi, Sh. B. S Cheema,
Sh. Kawal Singh Chauhan and Smt. Sushma Singh were the special invitees of the session.
Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the chairman and special invitees of
the session. Fellow and Innovative Farmers Awardees of Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela 2023
shared their experience about innovative ideas and technologies for enhancing farmers’
income.

Kailash Chaudhary, State Agriculture Minister, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,
Government of India was the chief guest of the event. Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director,
ICAR-IARI welcomed the chief guest and other dignitaries. 6 Fellow farmers and 42
Innovative farmers with ‘IARI Innovative Farmer Award' were felicitate including women
farmers.

Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI congratulated all the awardee farmers and also
thanked them for their contributions towards agricultural development and Nutritional, Food
& Environmental security in the country. Dr Himashu Pathak, Secretary, DARE & Director
General, ICAR delivered the valedictory address and congratulated all the awardee farmers
by Pusa Institute and said that these farmers are inspiration to us and requested them to share
their journey and motivate the fallow farmers present at the fair. He congratulated farmers

and scientists for development of climate resilient crop varieties and technologies for
enhancing Nutritional, Food and Environmental security. He also appreciated the role of Pusa
Institute for providing good quality and high yielding crop varieties across the country and
congratulated for grand success Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023.
Shri Kailash Chaudhary, State Agriculture Minister, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers
Welfare, Government of India emphasized on the need to work for the development of
varieties of millets for nutritional security. He asked farmers not to be impatient and the
government is with them. "The government and scientists will support you from time to time
with new technologies," he added.
He reiterated the central role of new and innovative farm technologies food and
environmental security. He said modern technologies and crop varieties must reach to the
farmers without any time lag and must be demonstrated on farmers’ fields for winning the
confidence of farmers. Shri Chaudhary said the government is working towards increasing
the usage of technology at the hands of the farmers under various schemes like Pradhan
Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Soil Health Card
Scheme, Organic Agriculture and Traditional Agriculture Development Scheme
(Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana), Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi in the light of
benefiting the small and marginal farmers.
Large number of farmers from across the country visited the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023
and benefited from live demonstration of climate resilient varieties of wheat, mustard, lentil,
chickpea, vegetables, flowers and fruit crops and also gained useful and advance knowledge
of integrated farming system model. Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, IARI complimented
Scientists and other staff of the institute for the grand success of Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-
2023 and also appreciated farmers for their keen interest in participation of mela.

Dr Rabindra Nath Padaria, Joint Director (Extension), Dr JPS Dabaas, In-charge, CATAT,
ICAR-IARI and other dignitaries were also present during valedictory ceremony.

The mega event was organized by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Several
institutes of ICAR across the country had participated and special exhibitions on millets (Sree
Anna), farmer friendly technologies, innovations and products were displayed.