BHUBANESWAR: Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) has set up an innovation council to facilitate research and development (R&D) in agriculture sector. The Krishi Kalinga Innovation Council will render four major services - agri technologies commercialisation, agri business incubation, agri consultancy and agricultural skills.
On the eve of 60th Foundation Day of the university, OUAT Vice Chancellor Pawan Kumar Agarwal on Monday said the first-of-its kind council in any agriculture university in the country will help incubate and nurture technology and knowledge-based ventures to start-ups by providing infrastructure, access to business support services, guidance on marketing and advisories on intellectual property rights.
The university has taken up several innovative policy initiatives to strengthen academic, research and extension education in the last couple of years. Apart from the innovation council, technology management cell, OUAT foundation fund and OUAT Kalinga will help scale up commercialisation of knowledge and technologies developed here, he said.
“The OUAT Kalinga has been launched to provide seeds, quality planting materials, farm implements, animal breeds, mushroom spawn, fish seed and other technological products to farmers at right time and at an affordable price. The cell will oversee management of various technologies to be shared with different stakeholders,” Agarwal said. The university has so far developed 163 varieties of various crops suitable for cultivation in different agro-climatic zones of the State. Under the Kalinga brand, five of the recently released varieties, one each variety of sesame, millet, groundnut and sugarcane, have evoked good response from farmers.
Various farm machineries and implements have also been developed to reduce the cost of cultivation. The Vice Chancellor said a unique initiative Biotech-KISAN has been introduced in Kalahandi, Balangir, Kandhamal, Gajapati and Dhenkanal, to disseminate location specific and clientele specific technological solutions to small and marginal farmers.