The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Kalaburagi that functioned under the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (UAS-R), bagged the national award Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Krishi Vigyan Protsahan Puraskar-2020.
The contact farmer of the KVK, Kalaburagi, Sharanbasappa Patil, a native of Halsultanpur village in Kalaburagi district, bagged ICAR-Jagjivan Ram Innovative Farmer Award-2020 for his innovative contribution to agriculture.
The awards were announced at a virtual programme conducted from New Delhi on the ceremony of 93rd Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Friday.
The function was attended by Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education & Director General of ICAR Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, a senior officer at the Union government Ajay Sawhney and others.
UAS-R Vice-Chancellor K.N. Kattimani, Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute director V. Venkatasubramanian, Director of Extension of UAS-R D.M. Chandargi, head of KVK, Kalaburagi, Raju Teggellai, and other senior farm scientists participated in the event from their respective offices.
The Kalaburagi KVK, headed by entomologist Raju Teggellai, was chosen for the award among the 722 KVKs presently functioning in the country for its outstanding extension activities in the Kalaburagi district and surrounding areas. Its contributions that helped farmers in the areas of crop selection, machine technology, soil health management, soil and water conservation, rainwater harvesting, dryland agriculture, millets processing, dairy, stall-fed goat farming, high-density planting, integrated plant and disease management, vacuum packaging, beekeeping, terrace gardening, banana and mushroom cultivation, farm pond, and others, apart from the supply of planting materials to the farmers in need were considered for the award.
“The national award to KVK, Kalaburagi, is a result of a collective effort of all the scientists working and farmers associated with it. I am happy that our extensional activities are recognised at the national level. We have practically shown that even a farmer with small landholding and limited resources can financially do well employing new crop varieties and newer farm technologies under the guidance of farm scientists. I appeal to the farmers who migrate to bigger cities like Bengaluru in search of livelihoods to stay back at their native villages and undertake agriculture using modern farm technologies under the guidance of agriculture scientists and we, the farm scientists at KVK, Kalaburagi, are there to guide them,” Mr. Teggellai told The Hindu thanking all the stakeholders who stood with his KVK in its experiments that paved the way for the national award.
