Himalaya Harbinger, Uttarakhand Bureau.
On the second day of the three-day ‘Sri Anna Mahotsav’ organized at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manmohan Singh Chauhan flagged off the rally from the Agricultural College. The rally passed through various colleges from the Agricultural College and ended at the Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre. Students participated enthusiastically in the rally taken out for awareness on Sri Anna (Millet) and raised energetic slogans in praise of Sri Anna. They promoted coarse grains as climate-friendly crops and underlined their importance. The aim of this initiative was to further the global awareness generated under the ‘International Sri Anna Year-2023’ and inspire the general public to include nutritious grains like Sri Anna in their daily diet.
Addressing the programme, Vice Chancellor Dr Chauhan said that Shri Anna is not only rich in nutrients like iron, calcium and fibre, but it is also highly tolerant to climate change. He termed it as a sustainable solution for food security, livelihood of farmers and ecological balance. He said that increasing the production and consumption of Shri Anna will not only help in fighting malnutrition but will also provide better income to farmers and balance to the environment. The Vice Chancellor suggested to the Dean Student Welfare to provide Shri Anna based food in each hostel two days a week. On one hand, this will benefit the students in health, on the other hand, the demand for Shri Anna will increase and farmers of hilly areas will be able to increase their income by producing more Shri Anna.
Director Research Dr A.S. Nain presented the vote of thanks and appreciated the role of students, teachers and administration in spreading awareness through collective efforts. He said that such initiatives strengthen the mission of the university to promote sustainable agriculture and healthy lifestyle. This rally proved to be an important step of the university towards promoting dialogue and awareness on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which is connecting farmers and consumers with the importance of Sri Anna. Deans, Directors, faculty members, students and employees of all the colleges of the university participated in the program.
A one-day seminar on the topic of Rediscovering Sri Anna in India for Developed Nations (Reminder-2025) will be organized in the Gandhi Hall of the university on 23 August 2025.
