ICAR-IIHR organized NICRA - Climate Resilient Technology Day cum Training Programme
Two days programme entitled “NICRA Climate Resilient Technology Day and Farmers Training Programme” was organized at Narasipura village for the benefit of farmers of the NICRA adopted villages covering Narasipura, Hirenallur, Giriyapura villages of Kadur taluk; Koratakere of Birur taluk and other surrounding villages on 28th and 29th February 2016. The programme was organised to highlight the achievements of demonstrations conducted under Technology Demonstration Component of NICRA project, which is implemented in a cluster of villages namely Narsipura, Hirenelluru, Giriyapura and Koratakere of Kadur and Birur taluk for the past four years. NICRA team from CRIDA, Hyderabad; Scientists from IIHR, Bengaluru; Professors from UAHS, Shimoga; officials from NABARD, Bayers Crop Science Limited, Bengaluru and local representatives from different villages participated in the programme. Total of 260 farmers attended the programme on both the days.
On first day (28.02.2016) of the programme started with inauguration of the programme by the local leaders along with scientists and officials of CRIDA, IIHR, UAHS, NABARD, Bayers Crop Science Ltd. and the local representatives of the village. Dr. Balakrishna briefed about the purpose of the programme along with various technological interventions carried out by IIHR in the four villages. He emphasized on major technological interventions undertaken by IIHR such as raised bed method of sowing/ planting, drip and fertigation, foliar nutrition and integrated pest and disease management practices. He also emphasized on the mechanization of sowing in onion plots in onion growing area of Chikkamangalur district like sowing of onion seeds using bullock drawn and tractor drawn drum seeders, digger for harvesting of onion, improved, motorized onion de-topper, motorized onion grader and other machineries. This year sowing of onion on raised bed method has helped the farmers to get good yield, despite of the dry spells and excess rainfall damaging the crop in flat bed system of cultivation. He requested all the farmers to adopt these practices on large scale to get benefit from the CRT’s.
Inauguration of the Programme by the Scientists of CRIDA, IIHR, UAHS, Shimoga; Officers of NABARD, Bayers Crop Science Ltd. and village representatives
The Inaugural session was followed by demonstration of all the machineries developed by Section of Agricultural Engineering, IIHR, Bengaluru for the benefit of NICRA farmers. The demonstrations were conducted by the team lead by Dr. G. Senthilkumaran, Principal Scientist and Head and Dr. Carolina A Rathinakumari. They gave full demonstration of various machineries developed for onion crop by Agricultural Engineering section of IIHR under NICRA and institute project. Some of the machineries demonstrated includes sowing machineries like bullock drawn and tractor drawn drum seeder, harvesting of the onions using onion digger, de-topper for separating the bulbs from leaves, onion seed extractor for easy extraction of onion seeds, Onion grading machine etc. Due to non availability of labours, the farmers have encountered with difficulty in carrying out various field operations in onion crop. Therefore, the machineries listed were developed under NICRA as well as under the institute project. These machineries were very useful for timely completion of various operations in dryland onion crops and are also useful to avoid undesirable consequences of climatic aberrations like long dry spell and excess rainfall.
Dr. S. Shankar Hebbar, Principal Scientist, Division of Vegetable Crops, IIHR Bangalore highlighted about the various improved varieties, hybrids and the integrated production technology for onion crop. He told that with the use of drip irrigation, and fertigation technologies which plays a vital role in efficient use of water, easy weed management, reducing the labour cost and finally leading to increased yield and improved quality of onion crop. He also highlighted the role of conservation of water, nutrients and other resources to combat the impact of changing climatic conditions.
Dr. R. Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head, Div of Extension and Training addressing the farmers regarding the FPOs
Dr. Shashidhar, Professor of Agricultural Engineering, UAHS, Shimoga emphasized on the rain harvesting and other water conservation practices in the area and usage of the same for cultivation of crops during summer. He also familiarized the farmers on the importance of proper equipments and tools for effective usage of the conserved water and management of bore well water for irrigation.
Mrs. Anuradha Narahari, District Development Manager, NABARD, Chikkamangaluru explained about the various schemes and programmes of NABARD for individuals and group farming, which are very useful for farmers. Mr. Balaji, Bayers Crop Science Limited, Chikkamangalur highlighted about their new molecules and products which are very effective in integrated management of pests and diseases in onion cultivation. The programme was followed by the field visit to the onion seed production plot of Mr. Suresh, Narasipura, Kadur taluk with all the guests and resource persons of the programme along with the farmers in which a package of climate resilient technologies (CRT’s) of IIHR were demonstrated in onion seed crops. Some of the CRTs include raised bed cultivation, use of drum seeders, foliar nutrition, IPM/IDM practices, application of soil resilient products like AMC, etc.
IIHR scientist explaining about the CRT interventions in the village to Scientists, CRIDA and DDM, NABARD
The programme on second day started with the field visit to the seed production plots of farmers along with Dr. A.N. Ganeshmurthy, Principal Scientist, Division of Soil Science; Dr. R. Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Extension and Training; Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy, Principal Scientist, Agril. Engineering, CRIDA, Hyderabad; Dr. Rajiv Adake, Senior Scientist, CRIDA, Hyderabad; Dr.B.Balakrishna, Principal Scientist, Division of Extension and Training and Mr. Atheequlla, Scientist, Division of Extension and Training along with the entire NICRA project team.
After the field visit to Koratikere and Narasipura plots, the main training programme began in Narasipura village in which Dr. A.N. Ganeshmurthy, Principal Scientist, Division of Soil Science highlighted the importance of soil and water conservation, IIHR bio-products for soil resilience, importance of integrated nutrient and water management in Onion crop. He also advised the farmers to bring in the eco-friendly technologies (Eg. Use of Mucuna spp. for weed problems) in dryland horticulture, since the farmers can reduce their cost of production apart from solving the labour scarcity problems. Dr. R. Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Extension and Training addressed the gathering regarding the Farmer Producer Organisations with support from the Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium (SFAC), its formation, benefits, how it will beneficial to the farmers were being highlighted to the farmers and were encouraged in formation of FPOs for not only overcoming the middleman problem but also to increase their socio-economic status. Dr.B. Balakrishna, principal Scientist, Division of Extension and Training discussed on CRT’s in production of vegetable crops along with the Good Agricultural Practices in vegetable production and protected cultivation of vegetable crops. He also emphasized on importance of market management in vegetable crops.
Mr. Halappa, Giriyapura village speaking during Farmer-Scientist interaction session
At the end, there was an interaction session during which question and answer session was conducted by the entire team of scientists with farmers. During this session, a good number of questions were raised by the farmers on onion cultivation, pest and disease management, procedure for formation of farmers’ cubs and FPO’s, technologies of IIHR suitable for dry-land farming, water resource conservation and management, new varieties and hybrids of IIHR, marketing of horticultural crops, IPM and IDM etc. The programme ended with few tips given for effective crop management in horticultural crops by Mr. Atheequlla, G.A., scientist, Division of Extension and Training.