Bihar Agriculture Minister Visited ICAR-NOFRI
In order to adopt the Sikkim organic farming system model in Bihar, Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Bihar, Dr. Prem Kumar along with a team of high level officers visited ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute, Tadong on June 15, 2018. In the beginning of the program, Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director ICAR–NOFRI welcomed the dignitaries from Bihar. In his opening remarks, he apprised the Minister and officials about the various research, capacity buiding and skill development work undertaken by the ICAR–NOFRI and KVK, East Sikkim during last five years especially for doubling the farmers’ income by March 2022 and livelihood improvement through organic farming approach. He also gave brief introduction about the importance of organic farming under changing climate scenario and explained the importance of the integration different components of IOFS in a way so that output of each component is used as the input for the other components in IOFS module. He also detailed about the benefits of the integrated organic farming systems (IOFS) model to small and marginal farmers for livelihood and nutritional security in the state. Copies of the package and practices for organic crop production and extension folders were also handed over to the Honourable Minister. Later on, Dr. Prem Kumar, Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Bihar briefed about the purpose of his teams’ visit to Sikkim. He wanted a specific options for adoption of Sikkim model in Bihar and instructed the officers for adoption of principles and practices of organic farming that have been followed by the ICAR-NOFRI for promotion of organic farming in Bihar. He appreciated the work carried out by the ICAR-NOFRI for the continuous betterment of the farming community of the Sikkim. Later on, along with his team visited the ICAR Research Farm and instructed the officers to develop such kind of model to showcase them to the farmers of the Bihar for adoption. He also directed the officers for development of integrated organic farming system (IOFS) model at each of the KVK in Bihar so that the technology can spread rapidly. Officers from Bihar also interacted with the scientists of ICAR-NOFRI regarding the technologies developed at Research Farm. They were interested in the management of insect-pest and diseases though organic ways. Regarding the production of organic seed and organic nutrient management they were also briefed by the scientists. Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Sr. Scientist shared information about the experiments undertaken in NPOF project. Similarly, Dr. Ashish Yadav briefed about the temperate fruits and low cost plastic tunnels and rain shelters for year round organic vegetable production in Sikkim.
Visit at Research Farm
Issued by ICAR-NOFRI
