Farmers must adopt new farm technologies to reduce the cultivation cost in rainfed conditions, said Panjab Singh, former secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and former Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Wednesday.
A seven-member national panel of the ICAR and Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) reviewed the projects being implemented in arid drought-prone areas. Panjab Singh visited several plots in the Thamayyadoddi village and interacted with farmers to understand what technologies they had adopted.
Mr. Singh was accompanied by Anik Kumar Singh, former DDG, ICAR, the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) Project Coordinator Santanu Kumar Bal, and they listened to farmers from Vannedoddi, Karidikonda and Thamayyadoddi, where the Agriculture Research Station, Rekulakunta in Anantapur was supporting them through new technologies and better seed varieties that can withstand droughts.
Panjab Singh appreciated the efforts of the A.F. Ecology Centre in adopting the village and getting natural farming done after taking up soil conservation interventions such as building 32 farm ponds, three check dams and two watershed projects. A.F. Ecology Chief Operating Officer J. Murali Krishna told the visitors that the NGO had been working in the village since 2000 and was closely working with rainfed farmers by reviving old tanks, creating rock-fill dams, forming bunds and seed dibbling the bunds for the creation of farm forests.
The farmers at the meeting sought farm pond lining at subsidised rates and also the creation of new farm ponds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Published – September 25, 2024 08:04 pm IST
