KVK Samba organises 2-Day Training Program on Natural Farming

SAMBA, January 17: Krishi Vigyan Kendra Samba of SKUAST-Jammu today organised two day training programme on “Natural Farming” under the dynamic leadership of Professor. J.P. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu and the aegis of Directorate of Extension, SKUAST-J.

More than 40 farmers from different villages of district Samba have actively participated in the training programme.

The program was started by Dr. Sanjay Khajuria, Chief Scientist & Head, KVK Samba. He welcomed the Guests and Farmers and highlighted the importance of Natural Farming in Agriculture, particularly in Samba district. He stressed upon the need to practice natural farming in order to ensure the conservation of soil health and make agriculture more profitable. He also assured the farmers that they will be trained in various aspects of natural farming, including preparation of inputs, enriching soil and value addition. He explained in detail to the farmers about the main purpose of organizing the training programme on Natural Farming to sensitize farmers about the natural farming which is the present need of hour.

On this occasion,  Mukesh Sharma, Chief Horticulture Officer Samba was the Special Speaker of the programme, also stressed to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the growing challenges in soil management, fighting soil salinization, increasing soil awareness to improve soil health. The other guest present was  Shalesh Sharma, DDM, NABARD, Samba also told the farmers that such awareness programmes shall be the regular feature for the farming community at village level to make them aware of the balanced use of fertilizers to increase productivity and maintain soil health. He appreciated the team KVK Samba for reaching out each and every nook and corner of the district.

Dr. Abhay Kumar Sinha, Senior Scientist Agricultural Engineering and Co-P.I of the project Natural farming described in detail about the importance of Natural farming for farmers. He also described the farmers about the importance and making of Ganjeevamrit in detail. He emphasized the importance of soil in agricultural productivity. Dr. Saurav Gupta, Scientist, Entomology and Nodal Officer of the Project Natural Farming has given an Expert lecture on Natural Farming and briefed the importance of Natural Farming as it offers a solution to various problems, such as food insecurity, farmers’ distress, and health problems arising due to pesticide and fertilizer residue in food and water, global warming, climate change and natural calamities. It also has the potential to generate employment, thereby stemming the migration of rural youth. He further added that Natural Farming aims to make farming viable and aspirational by increasing net incomes of farmers on account of cost reduction, reduced risks, similar yields, incomes from intercropping. He also explained in brief about the procedure of making Jeevamrit and Beejamrit, important components of Natural Farming. Live demonstration of Jeevamrit, Ganjeevamrit and Beejamrit were also given to farmers.  Rakesh Sharma, HDO, Samba was also present in the programme and discussed in detail about the importance of natural farming for fruit orchards. He stressed upon that farmers should use organic farming techniques to promote soil health.

The programme was also assisted by  Bharat Bhushan,  Tejinder Singh and  Pawan kumar. At the end, vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Saurav Gupta, Scientist, Entomology, KVK, Samba.