The ICAR Short Course on "Secondary Agriculture for Sustainable Use, Value Enhancement and Product Innovation (SASUVEPI)" scheduled from 28-01-2026 to 06-02-2026, was inaugurated in the august presence of Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor (I/C) Dr. T. R. Ahlawat as President of the inaugural session along with the Chief Guest Dr. Manish Das, Director & Project Coordinator, ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Anand, Gujarat. Principal and Dean of ACH Dr. Alka Singh and CoF, Dr. M. B. Tandel graced the inaugural session as Guests of Honour.  After lamp lighting, Course Coordinator Prof. (Dr.) R P Gunaga welcomed the dignitaries and participants followed by felicitation of dignitaries with floral bouquet. Participants were also welcomed with floral sticks.  Dr. Gunaga elaborated about the course and its importance in the present-day scenario. He briefed that in this 10 days’ short course total 25 participants are participating from 5 different Indian states representing various agricultural Universities.

The Guest of Honour Dr. Alka Singh in her speech deliberated that if agriculture productivity and innovation decline the humanity would have to face severe consequences. She   advocated that primary agriculture is for economic gains and innovations in secondary agricultural will bring more prosperity in the present scenario. As Guest of Honour Dr. M. B. Tandel stressed upon new product innovation, isolation of bioactive agents from plants as it has been done in many other species already. He also advocated about biochar production and its utilization in agriculture and other industries. 

Chief Guest Dr. Manish Das in his inaugural remarks advocated on precision agriculture for higher productivity and farming should be assisted with natural farming concepts as his institute witnessed excellent performance of medicinal plants under this traditional and sustainable system. He also elaborated that medicinal plant waste could be utilized as substrate for button mushroom cultivation, hence can be used as secondary agriculture model. He suggested that guggal could be one of the potential gum resin crop for South Gujarat conditions.

Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor Dr. T. R. Ahlawat in his presidential remarks highlighted the milestones set by NAU in general and achievements made under NAHEP-CAAST project on secondary agriculture in particular. He advocated that secondary agriculture could help to achieve higher income from new innovations and could lead towards sustainability. In the present situations value enhancement in agricultural products is very much needed for competing the world standards, he added. At the end Dr. Ahlawat wished the organizing team a grand success of this ICAR sponsored 10 days’ short course and congratulated the participants who registered for this course from across the country. Course Coordinator Dr. M S Sankanur proposed the vote of thanks at the end of the inaugural session of this short course, while Dr. Swati Sharma served as the anchor for the entire ceremony.