NOMITA BILUNG
People’s Action for Development (PAD), a renowned NGO in upper Assam, organized a 2-day farmers’ exposure trip.
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PAD has been implementing a project related to Climate Change, Adaptation, Resilience and Mitigation in 10 climate-induced disaster-prone villages under Bihpuria Revenue Circle of Lakhimpur district with financial support from Germany-based Terre des Hommes (TDH).
The NGO organized the farmers’ exposure trip on Thursday and Friday from the villages to Krishi Vikash Kendra (KVK) in Lakhimpur. Almost 50 farmers including 5 women farmers, 5 from each village participated in the trip.
John Tirkey, the livelihood coordinator of the project informed that the trip was successful as all the farmers expressed satisfaction on the visit.
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He said the primary objective of the trip was to introduce the farmers who had been relying on traditional farming to the ways of scientific cultivation.
He also said these chosen villages were more prone to disasters like floods, erosion, storms, thunderstorms and cyclone, and the frequency and intensity of these disasters had been increasing over the years which tremendously affected crops yield.
In India, more than 65% of people are engaged in the farm sector but it contributes only 15% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which can be termed as very pathetic and exposes the plight of the Indian farmers.
Manuj Pegu, a farmer, who was a participant from Dhunaguri in this exposure trip expressed his happiness overwhelmingly and told that the entire team was extremely happy and got to learn immense novice ideas and techniques on integrated and sustainable farming.
He said, “We interacted with some senior scientists in the Regional Agriculture Research Station (RARS) under Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and also visited the fields. They were very supportive and taught us how we can go for Climate resilience farming.”
Gandhi Morang of Puroni Bahgarha said it was a fruitful trip and they could learn farming like climate-resilient rice varieties, multi-cropping, fisheries, poultry, piggery, organic methods of farming, horticulture, the process of preparing vermicompost, organic manure, etc.
He added that the Chief Scientist of RARS Dr Prabal Saikia and Senior Scientist Dr Bibha Ojha were very cordial and cooperative to the farmers.
Philipson Sona, the coordinator of the project told all the participants felt happy and vehemently eager to keep in touch with the scientific community to increase their farm-based productivity.