Report on webinar organized by Centre for Smart Agriculture
Webinar was organized by Centre for Smart Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management in the motive of sharing the knowledge and practical experience of invited speakers on Smart Farming and IoT intervention dated June 18, 2021 from 3.30pm to 6.00pm.
Session was started with welcome address by Dr. Dipankar Bhattacharayay, Professor and Mentor, Centre for Smart Agriculture followed by guest of honour Dr. Devender Reddy. Introductory message is given by Dr. Sagar Maitra, Coordinator, Centre for smart agriculture. Dr. Dinkar Gaikwad gave a brief introduction of invited speakers.
The keynote Speaker Prof. K.N. Tiwari is Emeritus Professor, at Agricultural and Food Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Tiwari has more than 36 years of experience in the field of Irrigation and Water Resources Management. He has taught several courses related
to Land and Water Resource Engineering to UG/PG/PhD students. He has developed infrastructure for conducting indoor irrigation and on farm field irrigation laboratory and demonstration set-up of Microirrigation System at IIT Kharagpur. Major research infrastructure facilities are developed in the field of micro irrigation in field crops, protected cultivation structures, hydrology, water balance monitoring system in the experimental farm at IIT Kharagpur and Digital Image Processing facilities which are unique in the country and the World. He has developed Hardware and Software for precise application of water to the plants irrigated using Micro Irrigation (MI). Seven Patents are to his credit on these innovations. He has been the Principal Investigator of more than 10 Sponsored Research Projects dealing with water
conservation and management which are the thrust areas of Water Resources and Management Development having national importance. Prof. K. N. Tiwari has published more than 100 research papers in the Journals of Internationally Repute, 2 International monograms on Remote Sensing Applications, training manuals and technical bulletins. He received UNESCO and DAAD Fellowships for Post Doctoral research studies. He has been honoured with the Fellow of the i) Indian Water Resources Society (IWRS), ii) Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers, iii) National Academy of Sciences (NASc) India, and iv) National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). He is recipient of i) Eminent Water Resources Scientist Award (2016) of IIT Roorkee, ii) Rafi Ahmed Kidwai award (2014) of ICAR, New Delhi, iii) Hari Krishna Shastri Memorial award (2013) of IARI, New Delhi, iv) Shankar Memorial award (1998) of ISAE, and v) Commendation Medal (1994) from ISAE.
Second keynote speaker Mr. Krishna is a founder of Modern Acres India Private Limited which is an award-winning start-up in innovating modern agricultural techniques. Currently he is in active hydroponics research, consultation and deployment of rural micro-agricultural farms. Mr. Krishna is a full-time entrepreneur and works on embedded systems, system architecture & design at his startup. His goals have been trying to minimize human error and interaction at protected farms by maximizing the quality and quantity of production output, With a systematic, easy to use platform thats currently under development will change the management of soil-less agricultural practices. Apart from that, He is the winner of awards such as Startup Odisha Yatra 2019 and Odisha Agri Hackathon – Sri Sri Univ. 2019 and Best B-Plan at IIIT Allahabad 2019 and many other Hackathons and accolades like “Young CEO” & Best Startup founder by National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (NSDC) to name some.
Third Keynote speaker Mr. Ashish is An alumnus of NIST, Berhampur (graduated in year 2000), Mr. Asish started off in the corporate world. From a cushy job in a Telecom MNC to farming, Mr. Asish has seen it all. This was in August 2018. The first seed of green, natural, and healthy farming was sown and Bloomenara was born. Mr. Asish is one of those new-age farmers who have given up their corporate jobs and have taken a plunge into farming. Mr. Asish’s vision to convert conventional farming into innovative farming so we can free our food and land from chemical and harmful pesticides and to save our earth, our health, our upcoming generation, the entire humankind, the entire animals that are directly or indirectly dependent on farming and the future of the world.
Webinar was attended by 213 participants. Programme was moderated by Dr. Sivala Kumar, Professor, SoABE and votes of thanks were given by Moderator.
The objective of the webinar was achieved. The overall session discussion benefitted the faculties and this webinar would help the participants to do their implementation in research centre work.