Workshops on 'Maize for North East Hill Region' kicks off
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 11 2024:
A two days Workshop on 'Maize for North East Hill Region: Challenges and Opportunities' commenced today at the auditorium of College of Agriculture (CoA), Iroisemba, Central Agricultural University (CAU), Imphal.
The inaugural programme was graced by Dr Lalita Mohan Gamayak, Director of Research; Prof L Nabachandra Singh, Department of Agronomy; Dr Shankar Lal Jat, Senior Scientist, ICAR-IIMR, Ludhiana and Prof N Brajendra Singh, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding as presidium members, said a release.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Lalita Mohan Gamayak briefed on the abundance of varieties and types of maize available in the NorthEast Region.
He maintained that Maize, being a C4 plant, is a climate resilient crop and is a safe food that ensures nutritional security as well as income security.
Further, he emphasized on the need of development of small tools for hilly terrain to reduce drudgery.
Calling maize an amazing crop and safest food, Dr Shanker Lal Jat stressed on increasing the popularity of com for food and feed security.
He also talked on the benefits of biofortified maize and added that the Government of India has emphasized on the use of maize for bio-ethanol production.
Prof L Nabachandra elaborated on how maize plays a significant role in ensuring food security for all.
Pointing out that productivity of maize is low in the NorthEast Region, he maintained that issues and challenges related to cultivation and production of maize should be addressed.
Prof N Brajendra Singh talked on the potential of maize in improving the socio-economic conditions of the farmers.
"Exploration of opportunities for specialty com, namely, sweetcorn, babycom, popcorn, etc and forage maize is the need of the hour", he added.
Notably, the workshop is being organised with an objective to disseminate recent advances in maize production technologies to extension workers, farmers and stakeholders and also to promote maize based entrepreneurship through value addition & strengthening the value chain.
The workshop will have four technical sessions under four different themes namely 'Sustainable technologies for diversified utilization of maize in NEH Region', 'Recent innovations for biotic and abiotic stress management for maize in NEH Region', 'Socio economic and market linkage' and 'Nutritional Security and livestock sustainability of maize in NEH Region' .