Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha chaired the 34th University Council Meeting of SKUAST Kashmir at Raj Bhawan today. The meeting was attended by Sh Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; Sh Santosh D Vaidya, Principal Secretary, Finance Department; Dr Ashok Dalwai, former CEO NRAA; Prof. RC Agrawal, Deputy Director General, ICAR; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Prof. Nazir A. Ganai, Vice Chancellor SKUAST Kashmir; Dr. B.N Tripathi, Vice Chancellor SKUAST Jammu; Sh Mohd Aijaz, Secretary, Planning, Development & Monitoring Department and senior officers.
The Lt Governor commended the significant contribution of SKUAST-Kashmir in the extraordinary growth journey of the Agriculture & Allied sector in J&K UT. The innovation-led initiatives and holistic approach of our Agricultural Universities are contributing in knowledge-based, Technology-driven and sustainable Agri-economy, he added.
The meeting discussed the comprehensive future road map on developing SKUAST-Kashmir as the leading institution for agricultural education, innovations, entrepreneurship, leadership and research, and make SKUAST a home to several centres of excellence in agriculture & allied sector.
The Lt Governor emphasized on taking the research and innovation from Lab to the Field to increase farmers’ productivity. He further instructed for short skill training courses for the students and also to conduct a detailed study on yield gaps. The meeting also deliberated on the reforms to promote start-ups and entrepreneurship, opening up new frontier areas to drive smart and intelligent farming practices, besides resetting of goals and mandates of the University in tune with National Goals and Priorities.
The Council gave in-principle approvals to various agenda points presented during the meeting including the setting up of Centre of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in Agriculture (CAIML); SKUAST-K Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (SKIIE)Centre and to establish the Division of Agro-Meteorology at FOH, Shalimar.
Prof. Nazir A. Ganai, Vice Chancellor SKUAST Kashmir presented the Progress Report of the University. The latest edition of Agri Rise- an Agricultural Education Digest on Agri-entrepreneurship was also released on the occasion.