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Presently,
value addition of the produce and utilizing the crop residues is
attaining high priority. Secondary Agriculture is high value
addition to primary agriculture. It helps in using all parts of
an agricultural produce (e.g. crop residues, animal hair, bones,
viscera, etc), processing to enhance shelf-life, increasing
total factor productivity, and generating additional jobs and
income for farmers. Certain alternative agriculture activities
like lac culture, beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, agri-tourism,
etc, also fall under the ambit of secondary agriculture.
By-products from agricultural crops, if processed appropriately
for deriving industrial products could pave a way in getting
better economic returns from agriculture. The advancement in
technologies, equipment, and processes would enable enhanced
secondary agriculture practices giving range of materials of
better quality, yield, nutrition, and convenience. Hence, the
secondary agriculture and the bioprocessing have potential to
give a strong boost to the economy, societal status and
environmental protection.
Keeping in
view the importance of secondary agriculture in rural
industrialization in order to improve farmer's income, it was
proposed to further widen the mandate of the IINRG. Therefore,
the Governing Body of ICAR Society in its 256th meeting approved
the proposal and the new name of the Institute as National
Institute of Secondary Agriculture. Consequent to this decision
of the Council, Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums has
been rechristened as National Institute of Secondary Agriculture
(NISA) w.e.f. September, 20, 2022.
Though, the
institute would keep on working on the production and value
edition of natural resins and gums, widening of the mandate
would bring a lot of new responsibilities and open newer vistas
of research. The institute would need to set its priorities and
focus on value addition of prioritized commodities, sustainable
utilization of the by-products and waste minimization to
substantially reduce the environmental pollution besides
creating wealth from the waste. Mere change in name will not
enthuse and create newer opportunities - strengthening of the
research infrastructure and required additional manpower
dedicated to secondary agriculture and establishing regional
stations in different agro-climatic regions would be the first
requisite to bring out positive outcome in the near future.
NISA would
surely get success in its prime objective of increasing the
income of Indian farming household by making money out of the
underutilized agricultural products. It will become a world
class institute in secondary agriculture in the time to come.
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