The National Campaign on “Farm Mechanization” Organized by ICAR

The National Campaign on “Farm Mechanization” was organized by the ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh from 28th March to 4th April 2022. Marking his presence as the Chief Guest during the Webinar on “Agricultural Mechanization in India - Challenges and Perspectives”, Dr. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT, Kharagpur delivered a Talk on “Challenges and Opportunities of Smart Farm Mechanization in India”.

In his words, he mentioned, that India should come up with the Make in India initiative on sensors to be used for the Smart Farm Machinery.

The challenges in front of the different stakeholders like farmers, academia, researchers, manufacturers, and the Government to achieve the goal of having smart farm mechanization in the country were also highlighted by Dr. Tewari.

The Guest of Honor, Shri T.R. Kesavan, Group President (CR), TAFE Limited, Chennai delivered a Talk on “Tractor and Agricultural Machinery Industry - Status and Way Forward”. The present status of manufacturing in the country was underlined in Shri Kesavan’s mentioned.

Dr. S.N. Jha, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering), ICAR underlined the requirement for automation in Indian Agriculture. The need for taking more solution-oriented research for mechanized agriculture was stressed by Dr. Jha. He also urged modifying the Course Curriculum of the Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies to prepare the appropriate human resource for future research.

Dr. Kanchan K. Singh, ADG (Farm Engineering), ICAR also shared his view on the future approach toward mechanization of the country.

The Webinar registered participation by 230 participants.

Earlier, to highlight the importance and utilization of agricultural tools, types of equipment, and types of machinery, the Institute organized the “Training Programme-cum-Technology Demonstration Meet on Agricultural Machinery” on 28th March 2022.

Delivering the inaugural address, Dr. C.R. Mehta, Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal highlighted the importance of the newly developed agricultural machinery and technology for enhancing production and productivity. The benefits of natural farming and agricultural Entrepreneurship were also accentuated by Dr. Mehta.

The Special Guest, Shri Vishnu Khatri, MLA, Berasia Constituency distributed the agricultural tools to the trainee farmers under the Schedules Caste Sub Plan Scheme.

Dr. Gajendra Singh, Former Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering), ICAR, and Dr. Gyanendra Singh, Former Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal also shared their views on the future approach toward mechanization in the country.