A young agriculture graduate, working on a project to mitigate hunger among Jaunsari tribals in Uttarakhand, has proposed an inter-tribal network based on the community farming concept.
Aravind Sharma has proposed that tribal hamlets can be interlinked by setting up a marketing cooperative society at a central location. “The society should be under the local zilla panchayat member with village elders as members. I am working on ways to improvise simple grinding stone to perform multiple functions, including chopping vegetables and weaving yarn, so that my community can save a lot of time and energy while preparing food,” he said. His paper on ‘Modification in Agriculture and Livelihood Techniques of Jaunsari Tribals’ won him an award.
Another young researcher, Keya Ganguly from Presidency University, Kolkata, is experimenting on cultivating transgenic Zoysia grass, which is widely used as sports turf across the world to bring down costs. These are among the several innovative projects and paper presentations that impressed senior scientists at the 6th Indian Youth Congress organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and hosted by Acharya Nagarjuna University here.
The three-day Youth Science Congress, which concluded here on Wednesday, provided a platform for several young scientists, researchers and students to share their thoughts on meeting the challenges of achieving zero hunger using science and technology. For some like Dharani Doss, Dharaneeswari and Nagasai Muttu, graduates from the Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigul, the meet opened new windows to innovations in food science. With Dr. Swaminathan lending a keen ear, the students had to simply put their best foot forward.
“We gained immensely by listening to lectures on agriculture and technology. It was a great learning experience to listen to Dr. Swaminathan. This congress had further strengthened my resolve to undertake organic farming,” said Dharani.
More than 350 students presented papers at the Congress. A selection committee chose papers on innovation and gave them commendation certificates. The 6th Indian Youth Congress is supported by SRM University, Chennai, and the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development. The next edition will be held in Bhubaneswar.
Project on inter-tribal network for Uttarakhand tribals wins award
