Dr. Sunil Kumar, Director
DIRECTOR'S DESK
ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) is a unique institute oriented to take up research on the management of natural resources for holistic improvement of small and marginal farmers through Integrated Farming Systems (IFS). Institute has 71 years of glorious history for its service to the nation through strengthening and evolving farming practices for food, nutritional, livelihood and environmental security. IFS approach is particularly relevant to address many challenges in today’s agriculture including profitability, production sustainability, resource use efficiency and climate change.
During the year, the Institute has undertaken various research activities through three research divisions namely Integrated Farming Systems, Organic Agriculture Systems, Cropping Systems and Resource Management and one section namely Technology Transfer and Assessment. Besides this, two national schemes i.e. All India Coordinated Research Project on Integrated Farming Systems (AICRP-IFS) and All India Network Programme on Organic Farming (AINP-OF) were operated with 74 centres covering all 15 Agro-climatic regions and 25 states/UTs and 20 centres covering 10 Agro-climatic regions and 16 states, respectively.
The research projects of Institute during the year included 26 In-House, 29 Outside funded and 03 Consultancy projects. The major accomplishments included sustainable resource management for climate smart IFS, refinement of farming systems for food and nutritional security, development of farm machinery and tools for IFS models, development of package of practices for organic production systems, studies on conservation agriculture and climate resilient approach for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, impact of IFS interventions etc. The up-scaling of technologies were attempted through outreach programmes viz. SCSP and Farmers FIRST by covering a total of 1985 households in 17 villages in four districts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Institute has also disseminated informations and technologies to farmers through modern IT and social media tools i.e. dedicated Apps, WhatsApp, YouTube, twitter and also organized several Kisan Gosthis, field days and awareness programmes.
Over the years, 71 prototype IFS models and 08 Integrated Organic Farming System Models have been developed under AICRP on IFS and AINP-OF, respectively. For up-scaling through state line departments, 32 bankable IFS Models for 23 states have been identified. Organic and Natural Farming farmers from 16 states have been characterized and biochemical characterization of 05 inputs and validation of ITKs (Indigenous Technical Knowledge) have been conducted. Efforts towards research in Natural Farming has also been made with testing of Natural Farming concoctions in rice-wheat cropping system at 04 locations and evaluation of Natural Farming in different ecosystems covering eight major cropping systems in 16 states.
I express my gratitude to Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR, New Delhi; Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Ex.-Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR, New Delhi and Dr. S.K. Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (NRM), ICAR, New Delhi, for their constant guidance, encouragement and support. I also extend my appreciation and thanks to Dr Rajbir Singh, ADG (AAFCC) of ICAR, New Delhi, Dr. S. Bhaskar, Ex. ADG (AAFCC), ICAR, New Delhi, and other staff members of the NRM division, ICAR HQ for their cooperation and support. The contributions of Dr A.S. Panwar, Ex. Director ICAR-IIFSR are gratefully acknowledged for his guidance and coordination to achieve the targets of the Institute. The support of all the staff including scientific, technical, administrative, supporting and contractual is duly acknowledged for taking up Institute’s Programme and activities. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the sincere efforts of the PME Cell, Heads of divisions/units/sections and editorial committee for compiling and publishing this report in a timely manner.
