Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat visited North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) here today to witness the foundation stone laying ceremony of Gujarat Bhavan and inaugurate the ‘Natural Farming’ seminar.
NEHU and Gujarat University today embarked on a new journey of collaboration by e-launching the Gujarat Bhavan, which was followed by the launch of the certificate course in Natural Farming, Agripreneurship and Cooperatives.
This all took place during the national seminar on ‘Organic farming in North-East India: A vision toward Sustainable Agriculture, Livelihood and Nutritional Security’, which was organised by the BIRAC’s BioNEST Bio-Incubator Facility, Tura campus in association with ICAR RC – NEH Region Umiam, IPR Cell, NEHU and Indian Institute of Sustainability, Gujarat University.
Devvrat graced the occasion as the chief guest of the inaugural function and was accompanied by his wife, Darshana Devi. Prof PS Shukla, the Vice-Chancellor of NEHU, was the chairman of the function. The syndicate members of Gujarat University were also present.
Addressing the gathering, Shukla mentioned that, as well as a Gujarat Bhavan in NEHU, a Meghalaya Bhawan will also be opened at Gujarat University.
The Gujarat Governor said that he is also a farmer and still works on his farms using the natural farming system and not with chemicals, which, he said, has ruined and destroyed our soil and environment. He said that he used to practice organic farming but has since moved to natural farming, which is replenishing the soil and environment. Devvrat said that although the Green Revolution made India self-sufficient in food crops, the harmful effect of using pesticides, chemicals, urea and fertilisers are being observed on a daily basis and that natural farming can replace these by using cow dung and urine as natural fertilisers.