Chandel farmers briefed on benefits of natural farming
Source: Chronicle News Service
Kakching, March 21 2023:
Under the sponsorship of Ministry of Agricultural and Farmers' Welfare, a training cum exhibition on natural farming was organised at Modi village, Chandel district on Tuesday.
The programme held under the project 'out scaling of natural farming through KVKs' was attended by ICAR KVK, Chandel head in-charge cum SMS (Animal Science) Dr A Ameeta Devi and Modi village chief K1 John as presidium members.
Delivering the keynote address, SMS (Agronomy) Dr K1 Levish Chongloi explained to the farmers that natural farming is a chemical-free traditional method and it is agro-ecology based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees and livestock with functional biodiversity.
She highlighted the benefits of adopting natural farming such as increasing production, sustainability, saving of water use, improvement in soil health and farmland ecosystem.
Dr A Ameeta Devi, in her speech, encouraged the farmers to rear local cow breed depending on their farm size for natural farming.
She explained to the farmers that inorganic farming, bio-fert-lisers and bio-pesticides are used, but zero budget natural farming is purely dependent on cow.
She also informed that there is need to eliminate chemicals in agriculture gradually and to conserve natural resources and re vive already depleted natural resources by propagating natural farming to save the soil, water, environment, animal and human health and ultimately overall agro ecosystems.
In his address, K1 John shared his happiness on organising the training cum exhibition.
Farmers in Modi village generally adopt natural ways of farming and organise organic or natural farming mela every year in the village to promote chemical free crops, he pointed out.
Later, training on natural farming was conducted by experts from ICAR - KVK Chandel SMS (Horticulture) Ps Lavid Anal, SMS (Plant Breeding) Ts Leenda Monsang and SMS (Agril Engg) Dr K Sonamani Singh were resource persons of the programme attended by 68 farmers.
In the exhibition, natural farming products and millets varieties were showcased.