Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Langroya, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar organizes district level camp on paddy residue management

Ludhiana, October 9, 2023: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Langroya, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, under the aegis of Directorate of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana & ICAR-ATARI, Zone-1 Ludhiana organized a district level camp on paddy residue management under the ongoing “praali parbandhan chetna yatra” campaign on October 8 at its campus to acquaint farmers about the different residue management technologies.

Mahinder Singh Dosanjh, award winning & progressive farmer from village Jagatpur was the chief guest and Dr. Ashok Kumar, former Director of Extension Education & Dean, PAU, Ludhiana and Dr. Gurdev Singh, Chief Agriculture Office, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar were the special guests on this occasion.

During the welcome address Dr. Maninder Singh Bons, Associate Director (Training) highlighted the harmful effects of burning of crop residue and laid stress on the proper management of paddy residue through the use of farm machinery. He also exhorted the farmers and farmwomen to avail the services of different vocational training programmes at KVK to adopt the subsidiary occupations.

Mahinder Singh Dosanjh in his presidential remarks also spoke about the ill effects of crop residue burning and urged farmers to adopt new technologies being promoted by KVK and PAU in the field of agriculture and allied sectors. He stressed upon the farmers to incorporate the paddy residue into the soil, which would improve the soil health and was ecofriendly technology.

Dr. Ashok Kumar during his lecture sensitized the farmers regarding the effective utilization of natural resources and efficient management of crop residue for sustainable agriculture and safeguarding the environment. He also stressed on the need for adopting processing of agricultural produce for realizing more income from agriculture.

Dr. Gurdev Singh spoke on the need of proper utilization of available paddy straw management machinery in the district and sought active cooperation of all in curbing the menace of paddy straw burning. He also complimented the efforts by various farmers of the district in taking lead in this campaign of paddy residue management by being the leading district in the state for non-recording of any case of paddy straw burning till date.

Dr. Kamldeep Singh Sangha, Project Director (ATMA), Er. Lovely, Assistant Agricultural Engineer and Dr. Manikant, Veterinary Doctor from Department of Animal Husbandry guided the farmers regarding different farmer welfare schemes of their departments.

Technical lectures were delivered by experts from KVK Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Dr. Baljit Singh, Assistant Professor (Plant Protection) discussed about integrated pest management in straw managed fields, Dr. Arti Verma, Assistant Professor (Vegetable Science) guided about integrated nutrition gardening, Dr. Kirandeep, Assistant Professor (Agricultural Engineering) informed the farmers about the different techniques available for management of paddy residue and Mrs. Renu Bala, Demonstrator (Home Science) threw light on the formation of self help groups and FPOs and their importance in helping farmers/farm women in increasing their income.

Progressive farmers and farm women from KVK adopted villages & trainees associated with KVK were honoured by the dignitaries on this occasion for commendable work in paddy residue management and for achieving excellence in subsidiary occupations.

Pledge for non-burning of paddy residue was administered to the farmers and farmwomen on this occasion by the dignitaries and all present assured full support in this noble cause.

Exhibitions were arranged by KVK Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, allied departments, SHGs and entrepreneurs. Seeds of rabi crops and PAU literature were also made available for the benefit of the farmers.

In the end Dr. Maninder Singh Bons thanked all the guests and Farmers/farmwomen for making this programme successful.