Banda Agri University holds key meet on expanding extension services

Jhansi: Experts, scientists and agricultural officers participated in the sixth Extension Council meeting of Banda University of Agriculture and Technology on Saturday.During the meeting, discussions were held on strengthening agricultural extension services and improving the outreach of modern farming technologies among farmers in the Bundelkhand region.The meeting was chaired online by the university’s vice-chancellor, Prof SVS Raju, who said that the Directorate of Extension has been continuously working through its seven Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) to provide scientific farming guidance, training and technical support to farmers.He said the university is now planning to introduce several new extension programmes focused on environmental conservation and climate change challenges in agriculture.Director of extension, NK Bajpai, presented a comprehensive report on the activities carried out by the Directorate during the past year.Ranjay Kumar Singh, assistant deputy director general (Agricultural Extension), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, joined the meeting virtually and stressed the need to further strengthen the agricultural extension system for the benefit of farmers.Other experts including Raghavendra Singh, director of ATARI Kanpur, Jitendra Kwatra from Pantnagar University and senior scientist OP Ojha also shared their suggestions.