The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Virinjipuram bought laurels for the State and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University by winning a national award.

It was among over 83 KVKs in the South Zone to win the Best KVK award 2016 instituted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research at the zonal level.

A citation, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 2.25 lakh were handed over to KVK Programme Coordinator, Dr S Joshua Davidson by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, at the Krishi Unnati Fair held recently in Delhi, according to a university statement.

The award was in recognition of its outstanding and exemplary contributions in the field of agricultural, horticulture, veterinary, and home science extension.

The KVK has been instrumental in developing location-specific, need based and applied models of technology transfer that have contributed to strengthening the production base of farming systems, building capacity of stakeholders in the agricultural sector and developing agricultural entrepreneurship.

This has been achieved through activities like frontline demonstrations, technology assessment and refinement, vocational and in-service training and establishing forward linkages to facilitate marketing of agricultural commodities.

It has also played a key role in the promotion and spread of the cotton cultivation on a large scale in Gudiyatham block of Vellore district which was economically backward due to the conventional practices of rain-fed sorghum and Cumbu.

Cotton cultiviation was spread from 50 hectares to 2,200 across the entire block.

Besides, mechanisation of paddy cultivation was introduced through unemployed rural youths being brought under `green army’ and being imparted skill training which helped extend cultivation and introduce the practice of hiring services of the youth.

The KVK has also formulated a new wild boar bio-repellent which has turned popular across the State.