GUWAHATI, May 22 � The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kamrup, located at Kahikuchi here has brought laurels to the State by bagging the zonal-level �Best KVK Award� instituted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The award for the year 2013, comprising a citation, a certificate and a cash prize of five lakh rupees, was handed over to the Vice-Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University, Dr KM Bujarbaruah, and the programme coordinator of KVK Kamrup, Dr DN Kalita, by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, MK Kundariya, at a function in New Delhi on May 15, a press release said.
The KVK Kamrup was conferred the award in recognition of its outstanding and exemplary contributions in the field of agriculture, veterinary, fishery and home science extension. A district-level extension organisation under the Assam Agricultural University, KVK Kamrup had to compete with 76 other KVKs spread across as many districts of the eight north-eastern States to bag the award.
The KVK has been instrumental in developing location-specific, need-based and applied models of technology transfer that have contributed to strengthening the production base of farming systems, building capacity of stakeholders in the agricultural sector and developing agricultural entrepreneurship. This has been achieved through activities like frontline demonstrations, technology assessment and refinement, vocational and in-service training and establishing forward linkages to facilitate marketing of agricultural commodities. KVK Kamrup has been adopting a strategic delivery mechanism in order to reduce the vulnerability of the less privileged sections of the farming community in order to ensure their livelihood security, besides promoting sustainable agricultural practices. The KVK is manned by a multidisciplinary team of experts belonging to the disciplines of agriculture, horticulture, veterinary science, fishery science and home science, the release added.
The award was handed over to the KVK during the annual conference of Vice Chancellors of Agricultural Universities of India and directors of national-level institutes under ICAR at Pusa, New Delhi. The Director General of ICAR, Dr S Ayyappan, chairman of the Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board, Dr Gurbachan Singh, along with a host of other dignitaries were present on the occasion. KVK Kamrup is the first KVK from Assam to bag this award, according to the release.
