ICAR holds Field Day

SHILLONG, MARCH 07: Hundred-and-fifty farmers from Ri-Bhoi district attended the ‘Field Day’ organized by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), North-eastern Hills,at its division farm on Wednesday.

Tribal farmers from Umeit, Mawnonsynrum, Mawlawi, Kyrdem, Sohrublei, Mawlfin-Mawkhan and Nongdewsaw attended the education and training programme on conservation agriculture with crop yield enhancement.

“The north-eastern region is grappling with population explosion, food deficiency, and lower cropping intensity (125- Meghalaya), which is hurting the farming sentiment in the region. Under the climate change regime, these issues will further affect farming and farmers. Sustainable farming practices such as, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, can reduce the need for agricultural inputs like chemicals and water, improve carbon sequestration, and help prevent land degradation, to which agricultural productivity has long been affected severally”, said S.V. Ngachan, director ICAR Research Complex for NEH region, Meghalaya.

“Crop infestation has been one of pivotal areas. In recent times, new moths and other insects have infested some of the crops to the degree that the farmers had never experienced earlier. The farmers could not understand initially because they applied routinely control measures against attacks. We devised some tools to protect against alien crop-pests,” said N.S Azad Thakur, head of the department at crop protection division of ICAR, Barapani.

“Greater role is to be played by farmers who want to double their income. Disease management is the single factor affecting crop production in the region. With good scientists coupled with farmers’ network, including mass media, the growers can grow more”, said Satish Chandra, principal scientist at plant pathology division of ICAR, B Barapani.

The field demonstrations to the framers were managed by Ramkrishna G. Idapungati and Jayanta Layek.

Experts from water management and soil science divisions informed the tribal farmers about the doable technologies available with the ICAR institute for their use. (By Our Reporter)