Shimla (The Hawk): The 4th BSM of cluster officers of the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Haryana began today at the Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni. The meeting was inaugurated by Prof. Rajeshwar Singh Chandel, UHF Vice-Chancellor and was attended by the bank’s District Development Managers from Haryana.
Welcoming the officers, Prof. Chandel lauded the role of financial institutions like NABARD in facilitating credit flow and other interventions for the promotion and development of agriculture and other allied economic activities in rural areas. He said that the universities and other educational institutions can effectively showcase the different farming models developed by it for increasing farmers' income through the support of the bank. He urged the officers to explore the possibilities of exploring the possibilities of upscaling technologies developed by the university. He proposed that the university and NABARD can work towards starting a short term course for students and farmers for giving them the knowledge to start their own ventures and Farmers Producers Companies.
Smt. Deepa B Guha, CGM Nabard Haryana said that the meeting was part of the cross-learning exercise for the officers and the main aim will be to enable the transfer of technology to the farmers. She added that the visit will also be a chance to learn about the latest technologies especially natural farming which the bank will look to promote in Haryana. Guha said that the bank will also look to organize the visits of Farmer Producer Organisations to the university and see what models can be replicated.
CGM Himachal Dr. Sudhanshu Mishra praised the university for developing horticulture in the state. He also spoke about the various rural development projects undertaken by the bank in the state. During the meeting, the interventions supported by the bank in Haryana for soil reclamation, water conservation and promotion of new IoT-based technologies were also mentioned. Exposure visits to the university’s Post Harvest facilities, Floral Craft lab, Pesticide Residue lab, tissue culture and forest product labs, natural farming experimental block, Kiwi block, hi-density apple plantation and hi-tech floriculture lab were also undertaken.
Dr. Sanjeev Chauhan, Director Research; Dr. Inder Dev, Director Extension Education, Shri Sandeep Negi, Registrar, Dr. CL Thakur, Dean College of Forestry; Dr. Anju Dhiman, Librarian, Dr. Maya Devi, GM Haryana, Shri Vinod Arya, GM Haryana and District Development Managers of NABARD from Haryana took part in the meeting.