National Horticulture Fair ends; 70,000 visitors, 16 lakh attend online

The five-day National Horticulture Festival 2021 concluded on a grand note at the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, on Friday.

The fair, held in a hybrid mode for the first time in view of the pandemic, was attended by lakhs of farmers from across the country in both physical and virtual forms.

While around 70,000 people visited the fair physically, the number of virtual visitors at Krishi Kalyan Kendras (KVKs) stood at 16.3 lakh, according to Dr M R Dinesh, Director, IIHR.

Authorities had made arrangement at KVKs in all states for local farmers to witness the fair. The festival was also streamed live on the IIHR website and on YouTube and Facebook accounts. In some places, local farmers arranged the telecast to help their peers.

The last day had many visitors from various parts of Karnataka and neighbouring states. Visitors bought seedlings and seeds developed by the IIHR and other value-added products of jack fruit and other horticultural produce.

Scientists took part in technical sessions in various languages to provide agri solutions to farmers in their own language, Dr Dinesh said.

Dr M V Dhananjay, Principal Scientist and Organising Secretary of the NHF, said MoUs were signed at the festival to commercialise the technology developed at the IIHR. Programmes on urban cultivation and terrace gardening were a big hit with city dwellers, he added.

Dr Vikramaditya Pandey, ADG (Horticulture Science), ICAR, stressed the need to convince farmers about adopting modelling farming technologies. "There is an urgent need to take the varieties and technologies developed by the IIHR to farmers across the country," he said.

BDA Chairperson and Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath lamented that middlemen were taking advantage of farmers and depriving them of profits while selling the agricultural produce. He said the prime minister was striving to double farmers' income by next year and declared that a minimum support price (MSP) would be fixed for all crops.