Jharkhand’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives Badal Patralekh and a team of higher officials visited the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) on Saturday.
Aboobacker Siddique, secretary, Department of Agriculture, and A Sakkeer Hussain, registrar, KAU, welcomed the Minister and his team and gave them a brief introduction about KAU. Later, the team visited the Agri-business Incubator set up under the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on biological control and the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) at Mannuthy.
The Minister and his team was provided a detailed description of the activities of the agri-business incubator and the various sources of funds that can be utilised for the establishment of the incubator. 3D food printing technology, various types of dryers and various processing equipment were explained to the team by K.P. Sudheer, Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering. He also explained to the team about the facilities offered to aspiring entrepreneurs by the incubator.
The Minister and the team also visited a biocontrol unit and had a first-hand experience of the mass production of biocontrol agents for eco-friendly management of insects, pests and weeds. The Minister enquired about the possibilities of training farmers on the production of various biocontrol agents.
At the Agricultural Research Station, the team assessed various farm machineries developed at the facility. The Minister enquired about the possibilities of training a small set of master trainers in the field of mechanisation at ARS. Mr. Patralekh sought the support of the KAU in helping the Government of Jharkhand to develop its agriculture sector, according to a press release from the KAU.
