ICAR organises training cum awareness on Climate Resilience through Organic Conservation Agricuture
A day long Awareness cum Training Program on Adaptation and Mitigation through Soil, Water, Nutrient Management and Agro-forestry (Soil Carbon Sequestration/ Conservation Agriculture) was organised on March 31, 2018 at ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute, Tadong, Gangtok. The key objective of the training was to develop awareness among all the stakeholders including farmers regarding Climate Resilient trough Organic Conservation Agricuture.More than 100 nos. of participants including farmers and officials from State Agriculture Department, Horticulture Officer and farmers from Kurukshetra, Haryana, and Scientists from ICAR-NOFRI and subject matter specialists from KVK-East Sikkim, Ranipool attended this training. The event was inaugurated by Sh. D.K. Bhandari, Director (Horticulture), H&CCDD, Govt. of Sikkim. In his inaugural address, he appreciated the efforts taken by the ICAR-NOFRI in organising this kind of training programme to create awareness on climate change and its impact on agriculture. He also stressed on the need for more intensive croppping for supply of vegetables in Sikkim. He added identification and development of crops adaptable to climate change such as short duration and shallow-rooted crops is important to cope up with the problems arising due to climate change. Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR-NOFRI highlighted the impact of climate change on food production, pest and disease outbreak, impact on plantation crops such as large cardamom and Sikkim mandarin and their mitigation strategies. He spoke about the changes in climate variability in the north eastern region having fragile ecosystems, poor farmers and small land holding and also explained about the importance of organising this training programme to sensitize the farmers of Sikkim and other stakeholders.
Later on, technical session was organised for presenting the technologies for combating climate change. In Technical Session–I, Dr. Ravikant Avasthe, Joint Director presented the impact of climate change on agriculture in Sikkim and Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Senior Scientist (Agronomy) presented details on organic conservation agriculture, adaptation and mitigation for changing climate. In Technical Session-II, adaptation strategies for production of vegetables under changing climate was presented by Dr. Ashish Yadav, Sr. Scientist (Hort.) and adaptation and mitigation strategies for livestock under changing climate was deliberated by Dr. Rafiqul Islam, Pr. Scientist (Animal Reporduction), ICAR-NOFRI. At the end Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Sr. Scientist proposed a vote of thanks and wished for the successful completion of the programme.
Issued by ICAR-NOFRI
