Scientific Advisory Committee meetings held in Phek, Dimapur, Peren

Dimapur, Feb. 17 (EMN): Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings were conducted in several districts — Phek, Dimapur and Peren – of Nagaland in the past few days with an aim to find ways to uplift farmers and help them earn more income.

The Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) Phek conducted XVth SAC meeting in the KVK Conference Hall, Porba on February 17. An update received here on Monday informed that the programme was chaired by director of ICAR-NRC on Mithun in Medziphema Dr. Abhijit Mitra and attended by Deputy Commissioner of Phek Sachin Jaiswal as special guest.

Jaiswal emphasised on coordination of KVK with line departments of Agriculture in order to achieve a common goal to uplift the agrarian community, while Mitra urged the KVK officials to reach out to the remote villages to percolate farmer-friendly technologies and also encouraged the farmers not to be subsidy-oriented but rather optimise the available resources.

Senior scientist and head in-charge, KVK, Phek, Dr. T Esther Longkumer briefed on KVK mandates and activities besides presenting the annual action plan of KVK Phek and ACTO-Agronomy, KVK Phek, Dr. Hannah K Asangla presented the action taken report of XIVth SAC and progress report of preceding year 2019-2020.

An interactive session was held during the meeting which was followed by an exhibition in the KVK premises, informed the update. Altogether, 50 participants including district officials, progressive farmers, and representative from NGOs, Nagaland State Cooperative Bank and NABARD attended the meeting.

 All together 50 participants attended the meeting. The meeting concluded with words of appreciation by Dr. Debojyoti Borkotoky, SMS Animal Science.

KVK Dimapur

The KVKs or agricultural extension centres were asked to identify specific problems faced by the farmers before taking up any on-farm trials (OFTs) and front-line demonstrations (FLDs) and urged to focus on feeds and nutrition, and not on breed, pointing out that feed is the major cost of production in case of animals.

Dr. BK Kandpal, director of ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam in Meghalaya, said this in his closing remark during the scientific advisory committee (SAC) meeting chaired by director of ICAR-NRC on Mithun Dr. Abhijit Mitra, on February 14 in the Conference Hall of ICAR, Nagaland Centre.

This was informed by ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Nagaland Centre, Medziphema that conducted the programme through an update on February 17.

Kandpal, who also co-chaired the programme, told the gathering that importance should be given to locally available products like soyabean, maize, banana pseudostem, azolla etc. to reduce cost of production.

The programme started with release of three extension folders on “value addition in tapioca”, “Jackfruit chips” and “Neem: Uses in plant protection”. Dr. Ebibeni Ngullie, I/c KVK Dimapur, gave a presentation on action taken report of last SAC recommendation and progress report for 2019-2020 at the event, while ACTO (Agronomy) Ch Roben Singh presented on action plan for 2020-2021.

The update informed that a total of 32 officials from district agriculture and allied departments like Agriculture, Veterinary, Land Resource, Fishery, Bio-Control Lab, SASRD, CIH, NABARD Dimapur, I/c of KVK Kiphire and Peren, Scientists of ICAR, Nagaland Centre, progressive farmers from Zuheshe, Zutoi, Maova and Kukidolong village attended the meeting and gave their valuable suggestions.

KVK Peren

The ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Jalukie, has informed through a press release that Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Peren district conducted the 3rd SAC meeting in the office of KVK, Peren at Jalukie, on February 13.

Dr. BK Kandpal, director of ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam in Meghalaya, urged the KVK identify specific problem of major crops, livestock and fisheries faced by the farmers and find the technologies to address the issues through OFTs and FLDs.

Kandpal, who also chaired the meeting, advised the Agriculture and allied department to coordinate with the KVK and disseminate successful technologies to the farming community in the district as well as encouraged the stakeholders to give importance to locally available resources to increase net gross return.

Special guest of the function, Dr. Tinojongshi Chang, ADC, Jalukie, suggested the KVK Peren to select the villages covering all the blocks in the districts based on elevation for better coverage in the districts. He also urged all the line departments to share technologies and also look into the marketing aspects while introducing any new technology.

Dr. DJ Rajkhowa, joint director of ICAR RC for NEH Region, Nagaland Centre, in his address, urgeg the gathering to improve the existing technologies for commercialisation, while in-charge KVK, Peren, Dr. L Babita Devi presented action taken report of the last SAC recommendation, progress report for 2019-2020 and annual action plan for the year 2020-21 at the event.

A total of 27 officials from different departments like Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary, Land Resources, Soil Conservation, College of Veterinary Science, CAU, NSRLM, NABARD, PPPCL, scientists from ICAR Nagaland Centre, including ‘four progressive farmers, participated and shared their inputs and suggestions that have been taken into consideration for the Action plan 2020-21’, informed the update.

It added that three leaflets on the topic: Vaccines and vaccination for livestock, poultry and pets, and backyard poultry production and scientific pig farming were released during the meeting.