The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) on Friday announced a five-day national fair from February 8 with a view to reach out to maximum farmers across the country with new technologies and innovations.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the annual fair will be held on both offline and online platforms, making it a hybrid event, Bengaluru-based IIHR Director M R Dinesh told reporters here.
The offline fair will be held at the IIHR institute premises at Hesaraghatta in Bengaluru.
This is the fourth edition of the annual fair and is expected to see a footfall of 25 lakh farmers from across the country, of which 30,000 farmers will be from Karnataka and neighbouring southern states, he said.
Last year, the footfall was about 70,000.
The theme of the fair is ''Horticulture: for start-up and stand-up India''. The IIHR will showcase more than 200 demo fields of horticultural crops, new farm mechanisation systems, among other farm technologies, Dinesh said.
The IIHR will reach out to farmers through virtual mode via 721 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) as well as Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) spread across the country.
Farmers of Karnataka and neighbouring states will have to register themselves on the IIHR website for physical participation in the fair, which will be organised following the safety protocols of Covid-19, he added.
Principal Scientist M V Dhananjaya said 216 technologies developed by the IIHR would be showcased during the fair. Various NGOs and FPOs were being involved in the fair, which would have about 100 stalls, he said.
The IIHR, which has launched the country’s first-ever seed portal by a public sector unit, achieved a turnover of Rs 45 lakh in just four months.
The seeds were sold to farmers in 23 states of the country and seeds of about 60 crop varieties are available through the seed portal, he said.