Training on organic farming held in Manipur

5,000 organic farmers are registered under Manipur Organic Mission Agency Our Correspondent Imphal, Dec. 14 (EMN): Manipur tops the movement for organic farming among all the North Eastern states in terms of fulfilling central government’s organic mission criteria. The tiny and volatile north eastern border state fulfill most of the criteria’s of the organic mission of the country, said Executive Director Sh Debdutta Sharma of Manipur Organic Mission Agency(MOMA), Department of Horticulture while giving a lecture on pest and disease management in organic farming during the opening day of the two day training on organic farming for extension officers/field functionaries of the state government held under the aegis of Regional Centre of Organic Farming(RCOF) at its Lamphelpat office on Thursday. “Organic farming is the only way of farming and agriculture in the future,” said Debdutta. “The issue of food security, nutritional security and health security could be addressed in the long run through this farming.” Expressing the need to promote organic farmers, he urged the department to welcome and cooperate with the farmers and called upon citizens to encourage the organic farmers. There are around 5,000 organic farmers registered under MOMA. Dr HB Singh of CSIR-NEIST Imphal and Senior Scientist Dr V Pandey of RCOF Imphal also spoke on organic farming and biodiversity conservation and organic farming, principle and practices during the training which was attended by extension officers/field functionaries from eight districts including Churachandpur, chandel, Kangpokpi, Senapati, Tamenglong, etc. It may be mentioned that the first-ever exclusive organic outlet in North East under Mission Organic Chain Development for North East Region scheme was formally opened at Directorate of Horticulture and Soil Conservation here on Nov. 20 this year.