Report on Faculty development training programme attended by the EEI, Hyderabad faculty at MANAGE, Hyderabad from 1st to 4th October, 2024

The Faculty development training programme at MANAGE was held from 01st to 4th October, 2024 at MANAGE, Rajendranagar Hyderabad. Dr.N. Balasubramani, Director (Climate Change and Adaptation) and Dr A.Srinivasacharylu, Deputy Director (KM), MANAGE have inaugurated the programe. Dr. M. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Director, Dr. N. Praveen, Professor and Dr. D. Shireesha, Assistant Professor, EEI, Hyderabad attended the training programme and represented EEIs along with participants from SAMETIs of North East (Mizoram, Sikkim), Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Tamilnadu states. The training Programme started with the introductory remarks by Dr. N. Balasubramani, Director (Climate Change and Adaptation) andDr. A.Srinivasacharyulu, Deputy Director (KM), MANAGE, in their introductory remarks welcomed all the participants explained about the MANAGE activities and importance of faculty development programme. Faculty development program (FDP) is a training program that helps faculty members to improve their skills and knowledge to enhance their work performance. FDPs can cover a variety of topics, including: Entrepreneurship, technical skills and academic environment and asked the participants regarding their expectations and needs of the training programme. First session of the training programme was delivered by Dr.K.C.Gummagolmath, Director (M&E), MANAGE on current theme: Farmers Collectives-FPOs initiatives in India, followed by session on current theme: National Mission on Natural Farming delivered by Dr. N. Balasubramani, Director (Climate Change and Adaptation), MANAGE. The last session of the day was delivered on Leadership and Visioning in Agri Institutes taken by Dr. Annamaina Mallesh, Management Coach. On the second day of the programme (2nd October, 2024), participants were taken on field visit to Kattangur Farmers Produce Company Limited, Nalgonda District, Telangana. Kattangur Farmers Producer Company Limited (KFPC) is a Farmer Producer Organization (FPO), which aims to improve the livelihoods of local farmers, promote sustainable agriculture and reduce food wastage. Participants visited and interacted with respective incharges regarding the KFPC's activities which include procurement, sales, transportation, storage, processing, grading, marketing, and brand labeling, Solar cold rooms: KFPC uses Ecofrost Solar Cold Rooms to preserve the quality and freshness of agricultural produce, Customer hire centers: KFPC has 35 customer hire centers, KFPC has tie-ups with agro processing industries to reduce food waste and KFPC uses mechanization to reduce input costs. The activities of the KFPC include value addition of lemon and other fruits and vegetables in the form of grading, processing like pickles, flakes, dried like flakes etc; undertakes pesticidal spraying with drones, renewable energy utilization in the form of solar and electrical sources both to meet their domestic requirements and providing excess energy to power grid, integrated pack house, 14 no. of solar cold rooms each with 10tonnes capacity, custom hiring center with 40 equipments. solar dryers with 700kg capacity, powder making machine, pickles manufacturing and running 5 MSP paddy procuring centers, one vegetable nursery with one lakh plants, Training was conducted on mushroom cultivation for 40 women on lemon value addition. The KFPC had One acre campus encompassing 15000sq. feet buildings, 2 staff quarters and 12kw rooftop solar facility. The future plan of the KFPC is establishing a see village plant , biochar plant by thapovanam organic Bangalore, bio fertilizer plant, vermi compost, pickle machines, E.V charging by off grid power in its three acre land. Sri G.Nagesh is the Chief Executive Officer of the FPO, Sales men are Yogender, B.Saidamma, Incharge of Custom Hiring Centre, and B. Omkar is the Cleaner, and incharge of Solar Dryer. They are working closely with public (Depts of Horticulture, SERP etc.), private (Coromandel, PI, Konam etc) and other nongovernmental organizations. They are promoting innovative farming practices like Direct Seeded Rice, nano urea, DAP etc. Nandyal Narsimha Reddy, Ex-MLA, Advisor of KFPC, Mrs. Ch. Saidamma, Chairperson,, Mr. Prasad, Representative of Coromandel Co., R.Vidyasagar, Horticultural Officer, N.Ananthareddy, Dharmareddy, Kommu Raju and P. Lingareddy are the Directors, Mr.Mahesh and Mr.Anjaneyulu are the representatives of Konam Foundation, G.Sudhakar, Swach Shakthi, Members of Nova Bio fertilizers and Representative of PI were participated. On third day (3rd October, 2024) of the program, the session on Digital Extension-VISTAAR was delivered byDr.K. Krishna Reddy, Director (ICT), MANAGE followed by a Field visit to Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)- an R & D Organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for enhancement of the knowledge of the participants on Digital Extension Approaches. On the last day of the programme (4th October, 2024) Dr. Sarath Muthyala, Associate Faculty, NIMSME, Hyderabad took a session on Design thinking for Agri innovation and Institution building. In which he has addressed various steps in design thinking and the difference between the customer and consumer, identification of User case. The session also highlighted the sequence of steps in design thinking like empathise, define, ideate and generate prototype. It also specified how to decode the supply and value chain. The difference between supply chains and value chains was also clearly illustrated. The promotion of rural and Agriculture business management and documentation procedure in Agri and allied sector was also explained in the session. Next the session on ‘How to strengthen Agricultural Extension Training Institutes & Research prioritization in extension through World Café Method’ was by explained by Dr. A. Srinivasacharylu, Deputy Director (KM), MANAGE, Hyderabad. The Afternoon session on ‘Innovative training methodologies for the training institutes’ was delivered by Dr. V. Sudharani, Retd Sr.Professor & Director of Extension, PJTSAU. In which she has explained about various categories of training methodologies and strategies to build the capacities of extension officers of various levels. During the feedback session on the content of the training programme, the participants expressed high satisfaction with the program's content, delivery, and relevance. They expressed that field visit to Kattangur Farmers Producer Company Limited of Nalgonda is very useful for the strengthening of FPOs in their concerned states. The valedictory program was chaired by Dr. M. Srikanth, Director (Agri. Business Management), MANAGE and addressed the trainees that this training programme included the professional development activities, which aimed at improving the knowledge, skills, and abilities of faculty members in their specific roles and responsibilities.Thus, these customized approaches of the faculty development programme can more effectively address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by different faculty members of the training institutes followed by the distribution of participation certificates to the trainee officers. The training programme was coordinated by Dr. A. Srinivasa charyulu, Deputy Director (KM), MANAGE. Eighteen (18) participants representing EEI and SAMETIs attended the programme.