Experts of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-North Eastern Hills (NEH) Region has been organizing capacity building programmes of the farmers in Manipur to tackle the menace of fall army worms since last couple of weeks.
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These programmes are aimed to discuss about the best possible ways to tackle with the continuous spread of invasion of pest particularly the American origin Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) in the maize cultivation in north eastern states.
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After holding national level workshop in Imphal, a capacity building programme cum one-day workshop at state level on “Promotion of Scientific Maize Cultivation and FAW (Fall armyworm) Management in Nagaland” was held at ICAR Nagaland Centre on Monday.
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The idea of holding the workshop in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR), Ludhiana, Punjab is to promote the scientific cultivation of maize in Nagaland, says an official of ICAR.
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The Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR)-Research Complex for North Eastern Hills Region, Nagaland Centre and ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR), Ludhiana, Punjab jointly organized a one-day State Level Workshop on ‘Promotion of Scientific Maize Cultivation and FAW Management in Nagaland’ on May 27 last.
Highlighting the maize cultivation’s scope in Jhum land, Director Dr Narendra Prakash ICAR-Regional Centre (RC)-NEH Region, Umiam, according to a press available here, outlined the major constraints faced by the farmers, such as, non-availability of quality seed materials and lack of awareness among the farmers about the scientific management practices.
Dr Prakash also urged to work in the convergence mode for proper monitoring and reporting of major destructive pest in the state for timely management of the pest.
Urging the stakeholders for jointly tackling the menace of fall armyworm at the state level, Director Dr Sujay Rakshit of ICAR-IIMR, Ludhiana emphasized on the popularization of maize hybrids to improve the productivity of maize and the strategies for increasing the availability of quality seed of maize for the farmers.
In the technical sessions, Joint Director Dr DJ Rajkhowa of ICAR-RC-NEH Region, Nagaland Centre outlined the status and strategies for the promotion of scientific maize cultivation in Nagaland.