Bhopal, Feb 3: The 42nd annual convention of the Indian Society of Agricultural (ISAE) and symposium based on the theme "crop residue, animal waste and by-product utilization" concluded on Sunday at the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE).

The three-days of the presentations and deliberations of the convention focussed on the need to increase profitability and productivity in agriculture adopting conservation measures and making effective use of biomass resources, animal wastes and by-products for value addition and to aid food and energy security in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nawab Ali, Deputy Director General (Engineering), ICAR and president ISAE expressed satisfaction for the successful conduct of the programmes through presentations, industrial exhibitions and Kisan Gosthi.

Many useful recommendations emerged out of the presentations and few salient ones pertaining to the theme included; region wise estimation of soil capacity equipment package to cut, collect, process and transport crop/woody residues and specialized equipment to produce. Besides, presentations about harvest and preparation of energy crops for use as feedstock; estimation of soil capacity to convert crop and leafy residues into organic manure so that surplus residues may be used for cattle feed and energy purpose; supplementing biomass supply with fossil fuel for thermal and power applications and estimation of energy costs for conventional and renewable sources considering the environmental benefits were discussed.

Entrepreneurship development, agribusiness, custom hiring, improved manufacturing and commercialization of proven technologies were recommended for promotion and adoption at all levels to help the farmers to increase their income and improve the standard of life.

The convention ended with vote of thanks by Dr Amar Singh, secretary general, ISAE and Dr M M Pandey, director, CIAE, Bhopal.