Sutemi farmers imparted training on vegetable cultivation

March 13, 2023 30 Views No Comment

Zunheboto, March 13 (MExN): A one-day farmer’s training programme on ‘Promotion of Vegetable Cultivation for Livelihood Security’ was held at Sutemi village on March 8 with the aim of encouraging and promoting vegetable cultivation among farmers.

The training was conducted by the All India Coordinated Research Projects (Vegetable Crops), Nagaland Centre, SASRD, NU under TSP (Tribal Sub Plan) and headed by Prof Akali Sema, In-charge, TSP-AICRP (VC), informed a press release on Sunday. It was conducted mainly to highlight and encourage the farmers of the village on the importance of growing vegetables in kitchen gardens for uplifting their livelihood, in addition to creating awareness about common pests and diseases of vegetables and their management with eco-friendly tactics.

During the technical session-I, Dr Moakala Changkiri, Scientist, AICRP (VC), Department of Horticulture, SASRD: NU enlightened the farmers with basic tips on vegetable cultivation. She emphasised on the methodology and various ideas on production of vegetable crops without the use of inorganic sources and encouraged the farmers to try and adopt the scientific methods on organic production of vegetables which was practiced and recommended by the centre after years of trials. She also stressed the importance of nurseries, particularly for high value vegetable crops, in order to get better economic returns.

Dr Changkiri also demonstrated on the seedling root dip method with the use of biofertilisers in order to get a better crop.

The farmers were also enlightened with the use of neem oil in vegetable garden and how effectively it could be used as a natural insecticide. As desired by the women farmer participants, she also explained on the importance and method of soil solarisation in vegetable cultivation and how they could manage soil pathogens and improve their soil, the release stated.

The technical session-II on protection of vegetable crops was presented by Dr Otto S Awomi, Lecturer, Living Bible College, Ayinato where he enlightened the farmers on the common insect pests and showed them the various means of identification and management. He also demonstrated on the yellow sticky traps and light traps for trapping insects and preparation of NSKE with locally grown neem tree and explained the importance of NSKE in vegetable cultivation.

The training was attended by about 93 farmer participants and included an interaction session where the participants expressed their views on the training programme. Summer vegetable seeds, watering cans, and khurpis (trowels) were distributed to all the farmer participants.

The release stated that the participants expressed their gratitude to TSP- AICRP-Vegetable Crops, Department of Horticulture, SASRD: NU for organising such training programmes in their village and expressed their willingness to participate even in future programmes. The vote of thanks was proposed by Prof Akali Sema and ended with a mass prayer, it added.