Agriculture is the backbone of India’s economy and socio-economic development. It’s the main source of food for the world’s most populous country, our motherland Bharatmata’s about 140 crore population and contributes to the national income. It contributes 18.2% of nation’s GDP. Despite remarkable progress, agriculture sector faces many challenges like climate change, lack of infrastructure, small land holdings, reducing per capita land availability, poor mechanization, environmental degradation, agricultural marketing etc. Besides, there is huge gap of about 70% between technology generation and technology reach to the farmers which is much wider (~85%) in the North-Eastern region. Technology led growth and effective technology dissemination to the farmers are of paramount importance for sustainably enhancing production per unit of land, reducing cost of production, enhancing farmer’s income, water productivity and entrepreneurship development. In this backdrop network of 732 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) established in the rural districts of the country are playing crucial role in agro-technology dissemination at the farmer’s doorsteps. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister launched ‘Vikshit Bharat@2047: Voice of Youth’ with the objective of making India a developed nation with economic growth, environmental sustainability, social progress and good governance. Undoubtedly, agriculture will play a significant role in this endeavour. ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Zone-VI, Guwahati is engaged in technology application research, demonstration of proven technologies and technology products, technology dissemination and scaling up, monitoring and integration, knowledge management and capacity building of the stakeholders through 47 KVKs in Assam, 17 in Arunachal Pradesh and 4 in Sikkim under the management of different host organizations like state Agricultural University (SAUs), Central Agricultural University (CAU), ICAR institutes, State Government Departments and Non-Government Organization. Besides the mandated activities ATARI Guwahati is also implementing National Prioritized Programmes like Cluster Frontline Demonstrations (CFLD), Natural Farming and several other programmes and providing technology recommendations to the states with strong convergence with the line departments for its effective dissemination.

It is my sincere hope that ICAR-ATARI Guwahati will make meaningful contribution in the development of agriculture and allied sectors of the three states under its jurisdiction in particular and the NE region in general, imprint its foot print in income and employment generation, profit maximization, livelihood and entrepreneurship development of poor farmers, reducing rural migration leading to economic and inclusive growth in the region and country’s growth as a whole.