SRINAGAR: Dr. Ambreen Hamadani, Ph.D. Scholar of the Division of Animal Breeding & Genetics, SKUAST-Kashmir is declared as one of the winners of the ‘India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP)-2019.
The student received a citation and a cheque of Rs. 10.00 lac on behalf of SKUAST-K at an impressive award ceremony presided over by Amitabh Kant Chief Executive Officer NITI Aayog held at a Hotel in New Delhi.
The previous year winners of the IIGP-2018 were Mehvish Hameed, M.Tech student of Agri-Engineering and Fallah Nazir, 10th class student of DPS Srinagar. SKUAST-Kashmir is the only agriculture university to have competed and became winners for two consecutive years. Both the student teams during 2018 and 2019 were mentored by Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Director Planning and Monitoring, SKUAST-K.
The IIGP 2.0 is a unique tripartite initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts. This highly competitive ideation challenge received nearly 2500 entries this year from across India.
SKUAST-K got ranked amongst top 20 institutes alongside the best institutes of India including IITs and BITS Pilani. The competition took place in two phases with the final presentation at IIT Bombay. Dr. Hamadani presented an innovative idea of “Artificial Intelligence driven Farm Management Information System”. She has gained expertise in the development of such tools while having worked on similar lines during her master’s research and during her INSA fellowship at IISc, Bengaluru.
The AI driven tool shall be of its first kind in the country with the potential to connect the farmers with the development departments and R & D institutions for real-time data collection and service delivery to the farmers, thereby helping them to genetically improve their animals, better management of the farms with customized support services, and above all serve as a research and e-governance tool for better policy planning for improving the profitability and enhance farmers’ income.
The award shall be a stepping stone towards aligning the University priorities with the technologies of the 4th industrial revolution, of which Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Agriculture is an important one.
K. Skandan, Advisor to Governor and Professor Nazeer Ahmed Vice Chancellor SKUAST-K congratulated Dr Ambreen Hamadani and her mentor for bringing laurels to the University and the state during the inaugural ceremony of the National Conference on Fisheries and Climate Change held on 18-7-2019 at the Nund Reshi Convention Hall Shalimar.