The Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar took a review meeting of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi on Thursday.

During the meeting, Union Minister emphasized on enhancing the reach of technologies amongst farmers and reach out to maximum number of farmers through the network of ICAR and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).

While appreciating the works of ICAR, the Minister stressed the need to strengthen the research and extension system to reach out to farmers and solving the problems in farming. The Minister also emphasized for the maximum use of the IT tools in Agriculture including the higher education and promote e-publications.

Recognizing that seed is the prime input, Union Agriculture Minister suggested for preparing a roadmap for seed availability.

The Ministers of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary were present in the review meeting.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry said, ICAR has developed 1,234 crop varieties and 345 horticultural varieties during 2014-19. Many of the ICAR varieties and technologies are earning foreign exchange and contributing towards food security of the country.

The Ministry also said that ICAR proactively worked for the prevention of stress to farmers due to COVID-19. It said, advisory in 15 regional languages were communicated to over 5.48 crore farmers.

It added that about 42.7 lakh farmers were sensitized for use of Arogya Setu mobile application to fight COVID-19 pandemic and 4.33 lakh farmers have downloaded the application.

The Ministry further said, ICAR’s three institutes NIHSAD Bhopal, IVRI Izatnagar and NRC on Equines, Hissar were notified for COVID-19 testing in humans and Zoo animals.

Till date 1,561 samples have been tested by these institutes.