ICAR-NOFRI Empowers Tribal Farmers of South and West Sikkim Through Technological Backstopping and Input Support
ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute (ICAR-NOFRI) organized four training programs, two each in South Sikkim on May 10 at Salghari GPU; May 11, 2016 at Poklok GPU, South Sikkim and two in West Sikkim on May 31 at Okhrey and June 01, 2016 at Soreng under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) in order to strengthen tribal farmer’s capacity by dissemination of scientific knowledge and input support furthering the cause of organic farming. In all the four programs, total of 252 progressive farmers of South and West Sikkim participated and benefitted with the organic technical know-how and various necessary inputs like spray machines, organic pesticides (neem oil, copper oxychloride etc), vermibed sets, biofertilizers, neem cake, spawns and polythene for mushroom production and untreated seeds of various kharif vegetables distributed among the farmers of both South and West districts of Sikkim.
Addressing the farmers, Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR-NOFRI briefed about the activities of the Centre and the technologies developed for the benefit of the farmers. He emphasized upon the importance of organic farming under changing climes of mountainous ecosystems and urged the farmers to undertake the organic farming in an integrated approach so that the demand of one component could be supplemented through the others components.
In the technical sessions, farmers were trained through power point presentations in South and West Sikkim. Dr. R.K. Avasthe, Joint Director, stressed on increasing the cropping intensity by following the technologies developed by ICAR-NOFRI for livelihood improvement. He highlighted the importance of the organic nutrition to the agricultural and horticultural crops and the gap in supply on nutrient demands in the state. He emphasized on the importance of soil testing for balanced nutrition of crops and adoption of integrated organic farming system including livestock components. He also stressed on year round vegetables cultivation utilizing low cost plastic tunnel and rain shelter and also distributed the inputs to the farmers.
Dr. H. Kalita, Principal Scientist (Entomology) discussed the organic pest management in major crops of South and West Sikkim. He focused upon the importance of regular visit and proper monitoring of farm in organic production systems for better and cost effective management of insect pests. He also briefed about the insect management measures in organic cultivation of different crops.
Dr. Ashish Yadav, Senior Scientist (Horticulture) detailed the organic production technologies for intensive vegetable production under low cost plastic tunnels and rain shelters, which provide opportunities to grow year-round at least 14 different types of vegetables under different climatic conditions. He also briefed about organic fruit production technology, especially kiwifruit and Sikkim mandarin.
Dr. R. Gopi, Scientist Senior-Scale (Plant Pathology), talked about the use of different organic based formulations for managing the diseases in crops. He also stressed on the importance of COC, Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluorescens for organic disease management in farmer’s field.
Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Senior Scientist (Agronomy) discussed the organic agronomic practices of major field crops. He emphasized on the need of crop rotation with leguminous crops to maintain healthy soil and conveyed that farmers can increase the cropping intensity to 300% by adopting ICAR-NOFRI technologies.
Dr. R. Islam, Sr. Scientist (Animal Reproduction) also interacted with the farmers and briefed about importance of livestock in organic agriculture and suggested methods for scientific dairy, goat and pig farming for increased farm level income. He also discussed backyard poultry management techniques which has tremendous potential.
Mr. Shaon Kumar Das, Scientist (Soil Science) talked on organic nutrient management and method of soil sample collection techniques for proper soil health management and extracting higher crop production and productivity. Shri Boniface Lepcha, SMS (Horticulture) coordinated the event and talked about the nursery management techniques to the farmers which can be additional source of income for interested farmers.
Ms. Baby Mukhia, BDO; Ms. Dhan Kumari Manger, Panchayat President; Sh. Jas Bahadur Rai, Secretary from Salghari GPU; Sh. C. P. Rai, Zilla Panchayat, Sh. Gyalpo Lepcha, President, Ms. Mira Rai, Vice President, Sh. B. B. Sharma, Secretary, 34-Poklok-Denchong GPU, South Sikkim and Smt. Gyatmu Sherpa, Vice President, Sh. Budha Tashi Lepcha, Ms. Tashi Doma Sherpa, Panchayat Member from Okhrey GPU; Sh. Baldip Singh Lama, Zilla Panchayat Member, Sh. A.K. Sharma, HDO, Ms. Pranaya Gurung,ADO, Soreng, were also present during the training program. (Issued by ICAR-NOFRI, Gangtok)
Training and input distribution at Salghari GPU, South Sikkim Training and input distribution at Poklok GPU, South Sikkim Training and input distribution at Okhrey GPU, West Sikkim Training and input distribution at Soreng, West Sikkim
