A CORRESPONDENT
LAKHIMPUR: A two-day training programme on Post- Harvest Machinery was conducted by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Lakhimpur, under the aegis of the 'Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project' (APART) on Friday and Saturday. A total of 32 participants comprising farmers and FPC members attended the programme.
The programme started with a welcome address by APART Assistant Project Scientist Brishti Saikia. Senior Scientist & Head of KVK, Lakhimpur, Dr Prasanta Kumar Pathak graced the programme by holding interaction with the participants and gave a brief introduction of the institute KVK, Lakhimpur and its ongoing programmes. It was followed by a brief overview of APART by Project Associate Mouchumi Dutta. Principal Scientist, Regional Agricultural Research Station, North Lakhimpur, Dr Tarun Chandra Mahanta placed his expert views on scientific management practices of paddy fields.
Junior Researcher of International Rice Research Institute— Ankita Sahu and APART Project Scientist— Dr Gayatree Goswami took part in the programme as master trainers. Ankita Sahu put forwarded an interactive session with the participants while laying stress on the immense importance of mechanization to withstand post-harvest loss by the farmers. She threw light on different machines used in the cultivation of paddy, paying special importance to the post-harvest types of machinery. She discussed and demonstrated the working of different machines like mechanical rice transplanter, drum seeder, seed-cum-fertilizer drill, thresher, reaper, solar bubble drier, portable rice mill, battery operated sprayer.
APART Research Technician Durlov Borah and Research Technician of IRRI—Sanjay Kumar Yadav assisted the master trainers in demonstrating the use of different machines. On the other hand, Gayatree Goswami discussed the resource-efficient crop establishment methods like Dry-Direct Seeded Rice, Wet- Direct Seeded Rice, Mechanically transplanted Rice.
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