On the blessings of Amma, the inauguration of the NSS programme was conducted on 06/11/2022, Thursday at 5.00 to 6.00 pm in the online platform Microsoft teams at Amrita School of Agricultural Sciences. Student volunteers of B.Sc. (Hons.) Agri. of 2019, 2020 and 2021 batches and all the faculty members attended this inauguration programme. The programme started with a prayer which was presented by Aparna. S. of B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture 2019 batch.

It was followed by the welcome speech by Dr. P. Sivaraj, Assistant professor (Agrl. Extension). Next, Dr. Sudheesh Manalil, Principal, Head Research and PGP chair, Amrita School of Agricultural Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham delivered the presidential address and motivated the students with his personal experience.

After this, Dr. Venkatraman D, NSS Programme Coordinator, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Chief guest and Keynote speaker of the session addressed the meeting. He spoke about the history of NSS,

regular and camp activities of NSS, the significance of NSS for the students community and the advantages of involvement of Agriculture students in the NSS Programme. He also explained the different NSS activities such as cleaning, afforestation, Stage shows or a procession creating awareness of such issues as social problems, education and cleanliness, Awareness Rallies, Inviting doctors for health camps and Community surveys. He encouraged the students that they can learn other skills that help them to lead better life in various situations. NSS Programme coordinator also described the benefits of agriculture students in involving in NSS programme. He defined many possible plans such as promotion and awareness of organic farming, tree plantation, planting palm trees which may help in inducing rainfall, training of value-added products from palm byproducts for enhancing the livelihood of the rural people, Parthenium eradication programme, to understand the problems of farmers and help them and reach of all the government schemes to the farmers. He also spelt the interest that both the students of School of Agriculture and School of Engineering can work together to make technology for the farmers who are in need. He displayed and explained the videos regarding the NSS activities implemented at Ashwin Maharaja Trust and a camp conducted in a Chinnampathy village. His motivating speech was a great inspiration and guidance for the students. Following this, three student coordinators, Ms. Lekha, Ms. VS Sasmitha and Mr. Manoj joined the session and shared their practical experiences came across the NSS programme.

Finally, the vote of thanks was given by Dr. K. Murugasridevi, NSS Programme Officer, Assistant Professor (Agrl. Ento), Amrita School of Agricultural Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.