Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director General ICAR and Secretary DARE, Govt. of India today during his maiden visit to SKUAST-Kashmir commended the University for its innovative initiatives and the start-up ecosystem that has been put in place. He was here to chair the Brainstorming Workshop on Carbon Farming that is being organised under HADP Project on Alternate System of Agriculture for Sustainability in collaboration with Kashmir Chapter of Indian Society of Agronomy. Dr. Himanshu Pathak visited the SKIIE Centre (SKUAST-K Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship Centre), CAIML (Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), Flower show, RCRQA and Biotechnology Laboratories. He also visited the technology exhibition where he interacted with the faculty and student start-ups and appreciated the innovation based start-ups by the students of the University.
Later speaking during the inaugural session of a workshop on Carbon Farming he highlighted the role of Carbon Farming in meeting soil fertility enhancing agricultural resilience and mitigating the impact of climate change. He assured full support from ICAR in University’s futuristic initiatives and expressed the hope that other Agriculture Universities would follow the Roadmap and Model of Education Research and Entrepreneurship developed by SKUAST-K. He expressed his willingness to carry forward the recommendation emerging from the two-day Brainstorming Workshop Vice Chancellor SKUAST-Kashmir, Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai during his address highlighted the University’s efforts to promote climate smart agriculture and sustainable farming practices.
The other high level dignitaries who spoke during the programme included Dr. Anup Das, Director ICAR-RCER Patna, Dr. M.K Verma, Director ICAR-CITH Srinagar, DR. S.K Sharma ADG-HRM and President Indian Society for Agronomy. Prof. Haroon Rashid Naik, Director Research SKUAST-Kashmir welcomed dignitaries and guests and Dr. Rihana Habib Kanth, Dean Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura proposed the vote of thanks. Several University publications besides the Workshop Souvenir were released and the Kashmir Chapter on Indian Society of Agronomy was also launched. The two-day event features keynote lectures, lead papers from the prominent speakers across the country as well as oral and poster research presentations.
