Visit of 9th Research Advisory Committee of ICAR-CIARI under the Chairmanship of Prof. N. C. Gautam, Former Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishvavidiyalaya, Satna, Madhya Pradesh

The second meeting of the 9th RAC of ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair was held under the Chairmanship of Professor N.C. Gautam on 21.05.2022 at Dr. N.T. Singh Conference Hall, ICAR-CIARI with Dr. B.S. Dwivedi, Member (NRM), Dr. P. Mahapatra, Member (Horticulture) and Dr. Nitu Sindhu and Shri Ravindra Das, Farmers’ Representatives joined physically while Dr. R.K. Jain, Member (Breeding/Plant Protection) and Dr. S.S. Dana, Member (Animal Science) joined online. At the outset, Dr. Eaknath B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI welcomed the Chairman, Members and all the participants for the meeting. Subsequently, Dr. S.K. Zamir Ahmed, Member Secretary, RAC presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of RAC given during the last meeting held on 23.04.2021. This was followed by presentation of Director, ICAR-CIARI on the overall research, development and extension achievements of the Institute for the period 2021-22 thereafter Division-wise presentation by respective Heads.

To have an understanding on the ongoing research activities, centralized facilities and the technological application the Chairman and Members visited and interacted with the concerned Scientists of the Marine Fisheries Lab, units of mud crab fattening, biofloc, marine ornamental fish and fish feed production at Marine Hill, KVK, South Andaman, coconut based tuber farming system at Sippighat; and Bloomsdale Research Farm at Chouldari. They also visited the AKMU, PME Cell, Conference Hall and Dweep Krishi Darpan, Division of NRM, Central Instrumentation Facility,Butterfly Repository,Tissue Culture Lab, Fisheries Museum, Molecular Biology Lab and Microbiology Lab. On the field, they visited the research activities going on in Garcinia Conservation Block, Dragon Fruit Block, pig farm, Andaman Local and Nicobari pigs units,Model IFS ,micro-plot facility for salinity tolerance in paddy,Horticultural Plant Propagation Unit, Goat Improvement and Nicobari fowl Conservation Unit at Garacharma Research Complex.

Subsequently, they visited the Institute’s technological intervention at farmers’ field viz. fish based IFS of Shri Ashok Chandra Roy at Gopal Nagar, vegetable based IFS of Shri Madan Joydar at Creekabad, pig farm of Shri Sunil Joydhar at Bachrapahad, mini egg incubator of Smt. Meenakshi at Indira Nagar, Climate resilient IFS of Smt. Sushma Biswasat Wandoor, poulty hatchery of Shri Raja at Maccapahad and the plantation based IFS of Smt. Chellammal at Rangachang wherein the team interacted and got impressed by the enterprising nature of the farmers.

The visit was overall coordinated by Dr S.K.Zamir Ahmed, Dr. Jaya Kumaravaradan and Dr. Jai Sunder under the plan and guidance of Dr.Eaknath B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI.