Agriculture dept. conducts training for women farmers

[caption id="attachment_263674" align="alignnone" width="550"] Kivikhu Achumi (5th from right) and Bendanglila Aier (6th from right) along with women self help group leaders at the one-day training programme on July 30.[/caption] Dimapur, Aug. 2 (EMN): Department of Agriculture conducted a one-day State-level training on “Women in agriculture” under RKVY scheme on July 30 at the conference hall of the directorate of agriculture, Kohima. A total of 450 farmwomen from 30 Self Help Groups (SHGs) from 11 districts of Nagaland under the ongoing RKVY scheme have participated in the programme. Speaking on the occasion, S Kivikhu Achumi, Additional Director of Agriculture, urged the participants to totally get involve and benefit from the training. He encouraged the womenfolk to continue with farming even without aid from government with a competitive spirit. He further challenged them to go for better site selection for better production which would not only help themselves but the whole community. Bendanglila Aier, Joint Director of Agriculture, spoke on the topic “Empowerment of women farmers in terms of seed treatment and preservation, higher crop production and economic returns.” She expounded on the role and status of women around the world and at home. While pointing out food, health, nutrition, education and income as the areas that women are indispensable, she stated that women need to be empowered in those areas. Jacob Yanthan, Joint Director of Agriculture, encouraged the women farmers to continue working in harmony with each other for maximum productivity. Each leader from the 30 SHGs presented their reports based on their past, present and future activities. The common activities included cultivation of various vegetables, vermicomposting, livestock rearing, fish culture, soap making, food processing for value addition etc. The farmwomen further looked forward to doing even more in the coming days. At the end, vermi-composting was demonstrated and winter seeds were distributed to each SHG.