Sanjay Sahay| TNNRanchi: Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Friday urged Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) scientists to make the ‘lab to land plan’ more effective while opining that goal of agricultural research should not be only success in laboratories but also farmer’s progress.Addressing the BAU’s 46th foundation day ceremony, he observed that the real parameters of the institution’s success should not be the number of its research papers but its feats in increasing in farmer’s income, tackling their problems and bringing positive changes in their life.The governor urged the BAU students to become job providers rather than job seekers adding that presently agriculture has become wide field for innovation, start-ups, food processing and employment generation.He said that agriculture was not only a livelihood but the very basis of the country’s prosperity adding that the road to ‘Viksit Bharat’ passes through the farm sector.Director, Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology Ranchi, Dr Sujay Rakshit stressed on reducing the application of chemical fertilizers and promoting organic farming. “Since tribal communities are closer to nature, increasing the area under natural farming is easier in Jharkhand as compared to other states,“ he observed.BAU vice chancellor Dr SC Dubey said his university produced over 5,000 quintals of quality seeds of different varieties of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and produced about eight lakh quality planting material of fruits, vegetables, flowers and medicinal and aromatic plants last year.He stated that the university was working with hardly 15% of the sanctioned strength of regular teachers, which was a challenge for accreditation of its colleges and improving its ICAR ranking.
