Field Days on Boro Paddy at Nagaon

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nagaon under Assam Agricultural University organised two “Field Days” on Boro Rice under Farmers’ Participatory Action Research Programme (FPARP) at Bahuabheti and Bamungaon near Nagaon on 25th and 26th March, respectively. The programme is a collaborative one with the AICRP on Water Management, Jorhat centre and is fully funded by the Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India. With the mission to achieve noble objective of “More crop and income per drop of water”, FPARP on water use efficient technologies for improving productivity and sustainability of Boro is in operation since December, 2009 at Nagaon during the current rabi season. Under the programme two Self Help Groups of the localities have been conducting the demonstrations in 2 hectares of land. Addressing the gathering of around 200 farmers on both the days, Dr. Biswajit Guha, Principal Scientist of the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Shillongani emphasized on efficient water management in boro rice cultivation. Dr. Pankaj Deb Chaudhury, Sr. Scientist of RARS who recently developed two cold tolerant high yielding boro rice varieties for the farmers of the State attended the programme as resource person. From the AAU HQ at Jorhat, Dr. Binoy Medhi, Sr. Scientist also attended the meeting who urged on the farmers to utilize each drop of water efficiently for increasing crop production. At the very outset, Ms Anjumala Deka briefly explained the objectives of organizing the “Field Days”. Earlier in his welcome address the Programme Coordinator of the KVK, Dr T P Saikia appraised the gathering about the activities being undertaken by KVK and the objectives of FPAR Programme of Govt. of India. He also requested the farmers to utilize the services of KVK for overall development of their livelihood. Four participating farmers also spoke on the occasion and exchanged their experiences in scientific cultivation of Boro rice. They also acknowledged the technical help rendered by the scientists of KVK and RARS time to time & expressed their satisfaction for implementation of the programme at their locality. The meetings were presided over by Mukul Chandra Deka of Bahuabheti and Kaneswar Borah of Bamungaon. As a part of the Field Days two farmer-scientist interactions on field problems of agriculture as well as on allied disciplines was also held on both the days where the scientists of KVK and RARS took part as resource persons in the interactive session. They replied a volley of queries raised by the farmers. Lastly, Field visits to the demonstrated Boro rice fields were organized to have on the spot assessment of the efficient water management technologies and to share the experiences of participating farmers with others. The meeting of both the dates ended with offering of vote of thanks by Dhiren Nath and Chandan Deka, respectively.