PM Narendra Modi to lay foundation stone of 1,000-acre agri institute in Jharkhand on June 28

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) in Jharkhand on June 28.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will also be present on the occasion.

The institute, spread over one thousand acres, will come up near Goriya Karma village in Barhi, in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.

The institute in Jharkhand is part of the government's initiative to provide avenues and infrastructure for higher agricultural education and research in the country.

Plans are afoot to also set up an IARI campus in Assam.

IARI's primary goal is to achieve inclusive agricultural growth through Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) in the region.

The institute aims to conduct multi-disciplinary research centered around 3 major schools: School of Natural Resource Management, School of Crop Improvement & Protection, and School of Horticulture and Forestry with integrated Animal Sciences, Basic Sciences and Social Sciences components.

The key goals which IARI will seek to achieve in the region are:

- Ensuring improved soil health, water use efficiency (WUE) and management of both surface and ground water resources in the high rainfall (1200-1600 mm) regions through multi-disciplinary research.

- Conducting research on crop diversification to double the production in rice-fallow seasons.

- Bringing about improvement in the nutritional security and profitability of the farm families in the tribal belts through appropriate horticultural technologies.

- Developing region-specific integrated farming systems.

- Focusing on fast adoption of technologies through location-specific need-based extension strategies and mechanisms.

- Higher agricultural education for human resource development beginning with 10 post-graduate students from 2015-16 in Soil Science, Water Science & Technology, Agronomy, Horticulture and Genetics disciplines.

- Collaboration within NAREES and international organisations for making effective use of cutting-edge technologies to boost regional capacities and economy of the farmers

- Ensuring overall social impact in terms of employment generation through best skilled scientific, technical, administrative and supporting manpower.

- Fuelling and promoting technology-driven growth of agro-industries through first-generation entrepreneurs of the region and developing ancillary industries for rural employment and economic empowerment

- Ushering in Evergreen Revolution for productive, profitable and sustainable agriculture through quality post-graduate education and gender-equity.