ICAR-NAARM Annual Report 2007-08

Abstract

While presenting the Annual Report 2007-08, I feel extremely happy as it gives us the opportunity to give the account for entire year’s accomplishments in training, research, consultancy and policy support. It also gives us occasion to see where we stood last year and what efforts would be needed to achieve ever more. The last year was, in real sense, a watershed period when the Academy started making earnest efforts to do some out of box thinking which was given spurt by the Academy’s Quinquennial Review Team (QRT). As we gained confidence in our own capabilities, we thought it would be worth making the paradigm shift from a training institution since last more than three decades to a global learning institution with an aim to produce global thought leaders. But our quest for excellence in capacity building programmes for individuals and institutions of India National Agricultural Research System ( NARS )and others will go unabated. So, it has been a truly exciting period for all of us at the Academy. Our Vision-2025 and XI Plan SFC documents were prepared after much deliberation and reflect our aspirations for the future. The Academy was entrusted with the responsibility of Consortium Leader of NAIP sub-project in ‘Learning and Capacity Building’ in partnership with Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow; National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad and National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad as Consortium Partners. A number of programmes were organized, mainly by the Academy but also by the partnering institutions. The Academy is also a partner in three NAIP Consortia led by ICRISAT, Hyderabad; NCAP, New Delhi and NBPGR, New Delhi. A Help Desk was created at the Academy for providing support to prospective institutions in preparing their concept notes and full proposals of approved concept notes and their on-line submission and through a number of workshops with proposed Lead institutions and their partners under Components 2 and 3 of NAIP. Our support to PIU of NAIP has been strong and well recognized. On the training front, three FOCARS courses – the flagship programme of the Academy, were organized, one of the batches was quite large. There have been some innovations in the FET Programme for the FOCARS trainees, for instance we tried theme based FET this time, the theme being GI. Other programmes included EDPs, MDPs, Summer and Winter Schools in which research managers and different levels of scientists and teachers participated. Besides our regular client institutions under NARS, we also had participants from other organizations as well. The Council has been laying much emphasis on sensitization about the IP and technology management issues. First training-cum-workshop on this theme was organized at the Academy which dealt with important issues. The Academy also organized a number of off-Campus programmes for the benefit of larger number of scientists, teachers, technical and administrative staff of SAUs and ICAR institutes who otherwise could not come to NAARM at a time in such number. These courses have been well appreciated. Besides our national level programmes, international programmes for foreign nationals were also organized. An Expert Consultation on Agricultural Research Networks and Consortia in Asia-Pacific – a joint ICAR-ICRISAT-APAARI programme organized at the Academy had the participation of delegates from a large number of countries of the Region. Besides providing logistics for the Meet, we saw it as an opportunity to showcase the Academy to the participating countries / institutions with whom there could be future collaborations. The ICAR South Zone Sports Tournament, organized by the Academy had a record number of participants from 21 institutes. The redeeming feature of this Tournament was that NAARM bagged the Overall Team Championship, Best Woman All Rounder and Best Woman Athlete, Second Best Man All Rounder Awards and the Champions’ Trophy. All the officials including our FOCARS Probationers, who brought laurels to the Academy, deserve my highest praise.