ICAR hosts field day cum farmers' fair
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 11 2011: A one-day field day on rice cum farmers' fair was held today at ICAR, Lamphelpat with Agriculture Minister Ph Parijat Singh as Chief Guest.

Agriculture Department Director L Palandro Singh and Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya, Dr SV Ngachan were the guest of honour and president of the function respectively.

Joint Director of ICAR Manipur Centre, Dr N Prakash was also on the dais.

About 200 farmers from different districts of Manipur participated in the function.

In the farmers' fair, five KVKs including farmers exhibited various agricultural produces and local germplasms.

Among the exhibits, KVK Churachandpur was rated as the best KVK.

Ph Parijat, in his speech, encouraged the farmers for choosing the noble profession of farming.

It should be made known that without them, others cannot survive, he said.

Ph Parijat also mentioned the roles of ICAR for the betterment of farmers of the State.

The Minister said that the prizes of State level competition have been included tractors and power tillers apart from cash prizes to encourage the farmers for enhancing production.

He also urged the farmers to follow adopt farming on home scale whatever possible from health point of view.

L Palandro Singh while speaking at the function said that Manipur ranked eight position in all India level during the 10th Plan, however the State is in deficient of 65,000 MT.

It can be overcome if the State can increase pre-kharif rice farming area (first crop) upto 10,000 hectares and SRI (System of Rice Intensification) method is followed wherever possible.

He also urged the farmers to cultivate mustard after paddy cultivation using zero tillage method which is now widely and successfully adopted at Maklang areas of Imphal West for which seeds are available in plenty at State Agriculture Department.

Organic farming cannot be taken up on mass scale.

So balanced use of fertilizers should be adopted, he added.

In his presidential address, Dr SV Ngachan emphasised on integrated approach of various farming systems and linkages of various line departments to achieve self sufficiency in food production.

He added that ICAR has a new Tribal Support programme under National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) which can be adopted in upland areas where farmers face water scarcity problems.

The scented rice (chakhao) of Manipur is not less nutritious on chemical analysis than Japanese varieties which sell at Rs 400 per Kg in Delhi, he said.

State farmers and functionaries have to be informative to explore markets.

He also added that to solve seed scarcity problems, concerned departments should take up seed production programmes with farmers.

Critical inputs like pre-released paddy seeds (variety RCM 13), chicks (breed Vanaraja), fish fingerlings, mustard seed (M-27), garden pea seeds (Variety Arkel) were distributed to the farmers in the programme.

Participating farmers were later taken to a field visit followed by interaction programme of farmers with scientists.

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