Recommendations of the 45 th Annual Convention of ISAE and International Symposium on "Water for Agriculture"

Transcription

1 Recommendations of the 45 th Annual Convention of ISAE and International Symposium on "Water for Agriculture" General Recommendations: 1. There is need to develop adequate human resource at different levels e.g. mechanics, operators, entrepreneurs, managers for farm machinery management. State governments must have a separate Directorate of Agricultural Engineering by pooling from other government departments and make it a multi disciplinary unit for solving the problems of farmers in the fields of irrigation and drainage, microirrigation, soil & water conservation, integrated watershed management, agro processing and value addition, farm mechanization and energy management in agriculture. Every district should have an agricultural engineer to implement and monitor agricultural engineering related programmes. 2. There is an urgent need to provide adequate human resource in the Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi to implement and monitor various programmes related to agricultural engineering especially related to mechanization. There should be a position of Agricultural Engineering Commissioner in DOAC similar to the position of Horticulture Commissioner. A national centre for mechanization need to be established to develop a national data base on farm machinery, monitor development of mechanization in different parts of India in liaison with different stakeholders, and develop mechanization strategy and policy. 3. All Agricultural Engineering institutions must be interlinked to other R&D and academic institutions for developing viable technologies useful to the industry and farmers for sharing forward and backward flow of information regarding R&D results and its refinement suiting to different operating environments. 4. For achieving the evergreen revolution in the country, the HRD in agricultural engineering colleges must be strengthened with state of art laboratories and facilities and budget provisions must be increased to the universities offering agricultural engineering courses. 5. Teaching and research must be integrated in the universities so that the graduates / diploma engineers will have the practical exposure along with theory in the university curriculum. Agricultural Engineering must be included in the IIT s as separate discipline besides other engineering disciplines. 6. MNREGS constitutes 80% of works falling under the soil and water conservation

2 works which includes construction of bunds, farm ponds, rural roads, culverts, flood protection and control, drip irrigation, plantation, etc. These works indeed require the professionals from Agricultural Engineering for the planning, design and layout and implementation of the works in the project areas. It was felt that HR availability is very low though there is a demand for the graduates and diploma engineers in the state as well as in the country. The graduates of agricultural engineering will have integrated knowledge of crops, soil and water relations, farm machinery and equipment and agro processing and value addition. Hence, they must be recruited in the irrigation/ rural development (MNREGS & IWM) / agro industries / SWC of Agriculture Dept / APMIP / DWMA of the State Governments. 7. The students at master and Ph.D. level should be encouraged to select their problems as per the need of industry. Such students should carry out part of their research work in industry. A. Education 1. There is an urgent need for recasting the curriculum of B.E. /B. Tech. degree in Agricultural Engineering to cater to the needs of the society. 2. The text books should be revised to meet the changed curriculum in various disciplines of Agricultural Engineering. 3. Faculty and human resource development should be strengthened through frequent trainings. 4. Institution having a good infrastructure and faculty may decide for increasing the intake of students at Graduate, Master's and Ph.D. level. 5. A separate Department of Irrigation and Drainage should be established if not existing in all the Agricultural Engineering Colleges in the country. 6. Education quality improvement in different colleges should be undertaken through working group at ICAR level and suggest suitable measures to get quality Scientists and Teachers in Agricultural Engineering. B. Research 1. Research should immediately be strengthened in the areas of precision farming, conservation agriculture, climate resilient agriculture, ICT in agriculture, liquid fuel from biomass sources, bulk storage and transportation of perishables and innovative efforts in renewable energy.

3 2. Necessary research work be conducted and appropriate technologies should be generated and transferred immediately for reclamation of degraded soils. 3. The appropriate technologies developed for efficient utilization of wastewater for growing crops need to be refined and transferred to the farmers immediately. Policy 1. Separate Directorate/ Department of Agricultural Engineering should be formed in each State to solve the problems related to all activities of Agricultural Engineering more efficiently. 2. Central Government should support all Agricultural Engineering institutes for training human resource and conducting need based research. 3. Water Technology Centers should be established in various parts of the country on regional basis. Recommendations from Industry Session: 1. Vigorous efforts are being made by the industry to introduce sugarcane harvester, cotton pickers, and rice transplanters. Such machines require a change in agronomic cultural and management practices for their successful adoption. Sugarcane harvesters have been successfully introduced in Maharashtra. It was noted that apart from wider row spacing (4 ) cane milling practices have also to be changed for successful introduction of billet type sugarcane harvester. ICAR institutes, state universities should critically study the factors leading to the success of this machine in their regions if required. (Action : ICAR/SAU s) 2. Testing facilities have been enhanced by authorizing 21 institutions which is highly notable development. However, this puts great responsibility which needs to be discharged with great dedications and integrity. Proper test codes and procedures must be followed. However, where these codes are not available these must be developed and adopted uniformly. ICAR/BIS should play a role in co-ordination, monitoring and training. (Action: ICAR/ DOAC/BIS) 3. Some constraints like : expeditious release of test reports; delays in finalization of the incentives; procedures of subsidy; delays in credit flow; and recognition of entrepreneurship in agriculture as a business model for financing are very critical for healthy growth of mechanization. AMMA-India, CIAE and ISAE should work

4 together in developing in specific action plan to tackle these problems expeditiously. (Action : AMMA-INDIA, CIAE, ISAE) 4. Specific problems of separation of weed from seed have been identified by MSSC. These need to be taken up by CIAE/CIPHET. (Action : CIAE/CIPHET) 5. It is gratifying to note that Indian industries have grown to a level where they are building silos even abroad. Use of silos for efficient grain storage is increasingly being realized. Moreover these are more economical than traditional god owns. Capabilities of the Indian industry can be effectively utilized by promoting use of silos. 6. Fuel saving devices need to be tested independently over long duration to work out the economics before these can be recommended on a large scale. (Action : Users/Manufacturer concerned) 7. Industry inputs are essential to design the course curriculum so that the students are ready for employment in the industry immediately after graduation. They may therefore be co-opted as members/special invitees in Deans' committee meetings at ICAR level to review the course curriculum. (Action: DDG (Engg.)/DDG (Edu.) ICAR)

5 Soil and Water Engineering Following recommendations are based on presentation of 65papers and discussions: 1. The impact of watershed development programmes on mitigating the impacts of climate change especially in terms of moderation of floods and droughts need to be critically evaluated in different agro climatic regions. 2. Irrigation and drainage needs to be simultaneously analyzed while assessing water resource requirements and its judicious utilizations. 3. To economize on the cost and minimize the sedimentation rates in water harvesting structures, the concept of partial area treatment following water shed approach need to be evaluated in different rain fall zones of the country. 4. The design procedures for micro water harvesting structures need to be evaluated by developing rain fall catchment area storage capacity relationship in different agro climatic regions. 5. Design and operation of recharge filters for augmenting ground water aquifers should the standardized by ensuring good quality of recharged water. 6. The methodology of treating the waste water from municipalities, industrial effluents and agriculture systems need to be standardized to minimize its impacts on soil health and crop productivity. 7. Modern tools like RS, GIS, DGPS etc. need to be employed to generate strong hydrological database required for widely used simulation models for assessing the water availability and its effective utilization for maximizing water productivity with nutrition security through suitable integrated farming systems. 8. Appropriate institutional mechanisms by involving the local community with suitable policy support need to be devised to improve water use efficiency and ensure sustainability of micro water harvesting systems. 9. The R and D institutions should take the lead for developing low cost filtration units to reduce the overall cost of the drip irrigation systems. 10. The advantages of drip irrigation in terms of savings in water and fertilizers, enhancement of yield, water productivity and quality products obtained in a particular region should be promoted in respective states to save on scares water resource.

6 Agricultural Processing, Food and Dairy Engineering Following recommendations are based on presentation of 41papers and discussions: For research organizations: 1. Value addition and product development has to be focused towards utilisation of unexploited crops, crop residues, by-products, market potential and utilisation of crops during market glut. 2. All the research activities need to be linked with industries for early commercialisation. 3. Entrepreneurship development has to be a part of the research and transfer of technology programmes. 4. In the process of value addition and product development, nutritional qualities and food safety have to be taken care, besides utilisation of minimum water for processing so as to reduce the waste water and environmental degradation and optimization of energy input. For commercial organizations: 1. Use of hydrochloric acid gas (AHCL gas) for cotton seed delinting has been successfully adopted at Maharashtra State Seed Processing Corporation, Akola for commercial production. This technology may be adopted by other commercial seed processing organizations to avoid use of acid and soil pollution. For government and policy makers: 1. Extension activities reaching the entrepreneurs and farmers on post harvest aspects are very limited in the extension departments/ agencies in many state governments, which need to be strengthened. 2. Scaling up of technologies for industry level adoption from laboratory scale need to be funded by the appropriate government agencies. 3. The Agro processing and value addition technologies developed need to be translated into viable enterprises. Action is required from Government side through District Industries centre, Agribusiness Departments / related agencies.

7 Farm Machinery & Power Following recommendations are based on presentation of 39 papers and discussions: 1. The design of small hp tractor at CMERI, Durgapur is an appropriate attempt for eastern part of the country where low hp tillage is very popular. This will also be useful for hilly regions. The design must be transferred to manufacturers for mass scale production who will incorporate important sales and service features before these go to farmers. 2. CAD approach in the design of all agricultural machines must be followed to visualize the stresses developed in different members of the machine during field operation. It will save time and material cost. 3. For analysis of spray deposition pattern in cotton crop, the Quenchers appears to be appropriate one and may be adopted in other analysis also. 4. ROPS must be provided on all tractors for operators safety and comfort. BIS should make special efforts in emphasizing the use of ROPS to the manufacturers. 5. Drudgery reduction is an important issue and must be addressed during the design of the machines and equipment. The gender issue must also be taken into consideration in design. 6. Noise and vibration in the tractors are very high and efforts must be continued to reduce the same with suitable interventions in the design of the tractor system especially with regard to mufflers and tractor seats. Energy in Agriculture Following recommendations are based on presentation of 23 papers and discussions: 1. Solar tunnel dryers of various capacities have been successfully demonstrated for drying of horticultural crops, agricultural products, fish and fruits, etc. Some entrepreneurs have come forward and taken up their manufacturing and this technology should be promoted in large scale. 2. In rural areas cattle manure and biomass based centralized power generation need to be established. 3. Some selected institutions having excellent facilities in energy research and development need to be identified for human resource development for Energy in Agriculture.