The Department of Horticulture at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Tura organised a ‘Capacity Building Programme on ICAR-IIHR Technologies for the Production of Horticultural Crops in NEH Region’ on May 25 at Wahiajer, it was informed today.
The event was organised in collaboration with the NEHU Deen Dayal Upadhyay Community College for Skill Development in Wahiajer, West Jaintia Hills and the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru.
The programme saw the participation of approximately 200 farmers, predominantly women, who each received 50kg of horticultural inputs.
These inputs, supplied by ICAR-IIHR, included 20kg of compost, three grow bags, 8kg of microbial consortium, 6kg of citrus special, 4kg of vegetable special, 6kg of banana special, 1kg of neem soap and a kit of vegetable seeds.
The ICAR-IIHR, a premier horticultural research institute in India, ranks as the number one research institute among ICAR institutes and has developed 354 varieties and 156 technologies across 58 horticultural crops, a press release stated.
The event aimed to disseminate advanced IIHR technologies to farmers in West Jaintia Hills, promoting sustainable horticultural practices with minimal chemical use.
T Sakthivel, Principal Scientist at IIHR, detailed the usage of the distributed farm inputs. Additional Deputy Commissioner of West Jaintia Hills MB Tongper highlighted the significance of organic agriculture and natural farming, emphasising the potential for Geographical Indication (GI) tags beyond the success of Lakadong turmeric and Khasi mandarin.
Prakash Patil, Director of ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, stressed the benefits of using resistant vegetable crops to reduce input costs and encouraged farmers to fully utilise the distributed inputs. Sanjay K Singh, Deputy Director General-Horticultural Sciences, ICAR, New Delhi, focused on the importance of chemical-free farming and motivated farmers to adopt the organic technologies provided by IIHR. He urged farmers to document their success stories to serve as role models for future generations.
