Western Sydney University Ties Up with ICAR to Double Farmers’ Income

According to the reports, Western Sydney University - WSU will collaborate with several agricultural universities in the country and will also invest AUD 5 million as a part of a collaboration.

The collaboration will give Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision a reality of doubling farmer’s income by the year 2020. It will focus on research in the field of agriculture and innovation to help Indian farmers increase their income.

Gover, WSU Vice-Chancellor informed that India and Australia have some common challenges when it comes to building protected cropping industries. Both the countries share the same weather conditions. He further said that around 99% of Indian farmers have less than 5 hectares of land.

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WSU is already on working some projects, and one of their projects is with ICAR. It is a bee-keeping project that mainly involves women. They are very important for the environment, and there are different ways to develop an economic base from bee-keeping. Also, certain varieties of bees are very important for protected cropping. As of now, both Australia and India use hand pollination which is a very expensive process.

Bee-keeping is one such element of the project to bring a diversification of revenue. They plan to add livestock and to add more crops.

Apart from this WSU will also start joint research training programs in the field of agriculture and horticulture. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General of ICAR said that the association between ICAR and WSU will bring together many researchers, experts, academicians and students from different walks of life with a common platform to benefit from mutual expertise.

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The WSU will collaborate with a network of top state agricultural varsities of Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan and others.