Virtual Kisan Mela concludes at PAU

Ludhiana, March 25, 2022: The Virtual Kisan Mela, organized by the Directorate of Extension Education, concluded at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. The theme of the mela was “Soil, air and water conservation; practice this for future generation.” During the mela, panel discussions on Direct Seeded Rice (DSR); natural resource conservation; processing, value addition and farmer-producer organizations (FPOs); livestock, production and subsidiary occupations; scope of horticulture and forestry crops were held. Dr MS Bhullar, Head, Department of Agronomy; Dr Rakesh Sharda, Principal Extension Scientist (Soil and Water Engineering); Dr Poonam A Sachdev, Head, Department of Food Science and Technology; Dr Manoj Sharma, Senior Extension Scientist (Animal Husbandry) and Dr JS Brar, Senior Fruit Scientist, were the moderators of the five sessions.

Farmers from different parts of Punjab shared their experiences of Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), drip irrigation, crop diversification, agro-processing and FPOs. Progressive farmers, namely Parinder Singh from Ludhiana; Daljinder Singh from Bathinda and Nishandeep Singh from Tarn Taran said that DSR resulted in timely weed management, saving of about 15-20 per cent of water, better yield in comparison to conventional method of paddy sowing and gave time for vegetable cultivation. Farmers, namely Hardeep Singh and Sandeep Sharma urged the fellow farmers to adopt drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting for saving water. An innovative farmer Mohinder Singh Dosanjh stressed upon giving minimum support price (MSP) for oilseeds and pulses in order to motivate farmers to diversify their fields. Tasmi, an entrepreneur having several offices in India and abroad, said that he has set up a unit in Gujarat for the production of sugarcane juice after receiving training in bottled sugarcane juice technology from PAU and wishes to establish the units in other states as well, seeing the fiscal benefits. Punit Thind, Northern Farmers’ Mega FPO, while sharing his experience of running an FPO, said that farmers should not be dependent on the governments for the formation of an FPO, instead come together to form it.

During the wrap-up session, Dr Ashok Kumar, Director of Extension Education, PAU, said that next time, the mela will be organised in an offline mode. He called upon the farming community to participate in large number in Bathinda offline Kisan Mela on March 29 and discuss their farm issues with the agri-experts. “After two years of pandemic, for the first time, the mela will be held offline,” he remarked. Dr Kumar lauded the efforts of the team of the Directorate of Extension Education for the flawless organisation of the Virtual Kisan Mela.

Dr TS Riar, Additional Director Communication, also urged the farmers, farm women and rural youths to participate in Bathinda mela enthusiastically.