Rabi Kisan Sammelan organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra East Sikkim at ICAR Sikkim Centre
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, East Sikkim, ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong organized a Kisan Sammelan under the theme of “Farmers Scientist Interaction on Rabi Crops” at ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong on October 03, 2015 with an objective to showcase the improved production technologies of agricultural and allied sectors evolved by ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong. A total of 54 numbers of progressive farmers from different village of East Sikkim viz., Upper Nandok, Lower Nandok, Timpyem, Tshalamthang, Sirwani and Rey Busty participated in the program. Farmers were exposed to the standing Rabi crops as well as livestock production technology at ICAR Sikkim Centre Research Farm with the principles of “Seeing is Believing” during the program.
Addressing the gathering as Chief Guest, Hon’ble Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha, Sikkim) Shri P. D. Rai expressed his happiness towards the involvement of youth farmers in agriculture and allied sector. He emphasized on the change in attitude of such farmers towards the agri-preneurial ability to make agriculture sustainable in the state under organic condition. He also urged the farmers to adopt the modern improved agricultural technologies developed by ICAR Sikkim Centre to enhance the cropping intensity by at least 200 per cent as well as production in the state. He urged to the ICAR Scientists to make short videos of different new and improved technologies suitable to Sikkim condition for the circulation amongst the farmers for ease and quick dissemination of the technologies with the help of social media viz., WhatsApp and Facebook etc.
Guest of Honor, Sh. P.T. Bhutia, Director, H&CCDD, Govt. of Sikkim praised the efforts of ICAR Sikkim Centre for latest agricultural production technologies which will be extended to the farming community of Sikkim for the livelihood improvement of the resource poor farmers of Sikkim. He further requested the farmers to adopt the suitable technologies to enhance the production and productivity of different commercial crops of Sikkim. He urged the farmers for taking initiative of seeking various training programme on agricultural and allied sectors in their villages.
Dr. R.K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR Sikkim Centre suggested the farmers to utilize their farm land which is kept fallow after rice so that cropping intensity would increase up to 300 per cent. In his deliberation he highlighted that the agriculture system practiced in Sikkim is integrated with nature that has evolved through years of experimentation by the farmers and has withstood the test of time. He also appraised the gathering about the weather of Sikkim being congenial for numerous pest and disease, therefore, suggested the farmers that for marginal improvement in the lifestyle of the farmers can be witnessed with the adoption of modern agricultural technologies under organic condition.
Highlighting about the program Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Program Coordinator (I/c) and Senior Scientist (Agronomy) described the objective of organizing the kisan sammelan with special reference to the disseminate the modern agricultural technologies among the farming community of Sikkim to meet the ever increasing demand of food grains in the state. He further informed about the Govt. of India’s popular programmes viz., Swachh Bharat Mission and Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav has already been initiated by the KVK East Sikkim in different villages of the State.
In the technical session the scientists of ICAR, Dr. Ashish Yadav (Horticulture), Dr. R. Gopi (Plant Pathology), Dr. S. Babu (Agronomy), Sh. S.K. Das (Soil Science), Dr. Brijesh Kumar (Animal Reproduction) and Dr. Mahak Singh (Animal Reproduction) briefly presented the newly developed technologies of their respective disciplines which have direct impact on the livelihood security of farming community.
Shri Boniface Lepcha, SMS (Horticulture) coordinated the programme and shared the technical views in respect to subject matter. All the KVK staff actively participated for the smooth and successful execution of the programme.
