A national conference on, “Rebooting the hill farming for future sustainability and livelihood” was inaugurated at the ICAR research complex for NEH region in Umiam today.
The two-day conference organised by the Indian Association of Hill Farmingn (IAHF) aims at exploring ways and means of science and technology to address emerging matrix of the agricultural problems in holistic manner for sustainable development of hill and mountain ecosystem globally under various themes.
Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan who attended the conference as the chief guest in his speech stressed that as climate change has emerged as the biggest challenge there is a need to develop suitable technologies to make agriculture resilient. Stating that there is a lot of scope for the development of the horticulture sector in the North Eastern region starting from the increase in productivity, cultivation of high-value crops and their processing the Governor emphasized that though the region receives bountiful water during monsoon season, water still becomes the limiting factor for crop cultivation during other parts of the year.
He emphasised on concerted efforts in water conservation especially through rainwater harvesting and in-situ soil moisture conservation for the benefit of the farming community of the region. He said the ICAR and agricultural universities along with state governments will help to identify common areas of collaboration and harness synergies to make the agricultural system of the region more robust and resilient
International Commission on Water Resources Systems Vice President and founder member of IAHF, Dr Uttam C Sharma highlighted the distinct role of the ICAR RC NEH for improving jhum areas and developing other technologies relevant for hill agriculture for ensuring food security.
He stressed that technologies developed by the ICARNEH with greater suitability and affordability will enhance the economic and socio-economic conditions of the farmers.
Dr. KM Bujarbaruah, former Vice Chancellor, AAU, Jorhat in his speech highlighted on the fact that proper data relating to sustainability issues is not available. Emphasizing on the need of the hour, he said there is a need to design and develop a road map for system sustainability with parameters involving productivity, stability, profitability and sustainability.
He emphasised on greater importance of natural farming vis a vis organic farming under fragile hill ecosystems of NEH region. He also stressed on use of artificial intelligence and IT enabled services for modern hill agriculture. He also highlighted the importance of area expansion utilising marginal and degraded lands in order to cope up with increasing population pressure in NEH region.
During the programme a souvenir cum book of abstracts was released. Awards in different categories were also distributed to Dr U.C Sharma, Dr V. K Mishra and other researchers based on their immense contribution towards hill farming.
