CIFRI Scientist Bridges Science and Tradition for Fishers at Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan

With the ambitious goal of directly reaching approximately 1.5 crore farmers across 700 districts nationwide, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, have launched the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan in collaboration with state governments. This nationwide campaign aims to bridge the gap between research, practical farming, and learning by fostering meaningful exchanges between scientists and farmers.

Spanning over 15 days from May 29 to June 12, 2025, the programme will see over 2,000 groups of scientists visiting farming communities in villages, engaging directly with farmers. These interactions will focus on discussing new agricultural technologies, government schemes, and gathering valuable feedback from farmers regarding the latest advancements in farming techniques. This initiative is a significant step toward strengthening agricultural growth, ensuring that scientific innovations reach farmers effectively, and promoting sustainable practices for a more prosperous farming community.

ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) is one of the major partners in this massive campaign and accordingly, CIFRI has also started its journey under “Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” on 29^th of May, 2025 from the wetland of Kumli situated in Nadia district of West Bengal. Dr. B. K. Das, Director of CIFRI reached the wetland and his humble goodself didn’t hesitate in sitting on the ground with other’s while interacting closely with 202 of such local fish farmers including more than 50% of women. At the beginning, Dr. Das encouraged the participants to freely express their views on the present scenario of fisheries as well as agriculture and discuss about the problems faced by them. The major problems identified were lack of infrastructural facilities for pumping water into the wetland during the scarcity of water in the wetland, absence of proper storage centre for the harvested fish and problem of stocking fingerlings into the wetland due to shortage of adequate water level, and problem of water quality degradation after jute retting in the wetland.

As some of the farmers reiterated their ignorance about various Government schemes related to fisheries, Dr. R.K Manna discussed about possible solutions of their problems as well as various modern fisheries technologies appropriate for wetland fisheries management namely pen culture technology and culture-based fisheries.

Moreover, Dr. Aparna Roy have apprised the farmers about the implemented Government schemes & facilities pertinent to fisheries and agriculture. Besides, pamphlets on wetland fisheries management, leaflet on PMMSY scheme and leaflet on pre-kharif crop advisories were distributed among the participants present in the programme.

CIFRI also took part on the first day of “Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” campaign in several districts of West Bengal namely Birbhum, East Burdwan, Uttar Dinajpur, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Darjeeling, Jhargram and Paschim Medinipur where CIFRI’s scientists along with the SMS of the respective district’s KVK and other ICAR institute’s scientists interacted with the farmers and discussed about the contemporary agricultural, livestock’s as well as fish farming issues and tried to offer them on-field solutions to their problems. On the very first day of the pre-kharif campaign ICAR-CIFRI has reached more than 2890 farmers.   

Team Maverick is humbled to be the official broadcaster of the 15 days long “Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” under the aegis of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute.

Team Maverick