OUR CORRESPONDENT
TEZPUR: A three-day training on strengthening Farmer Producer Company (FPC) on Mat type nursery and mechanical transplanting of rice was held under APART at KVK Sonitpur.
The training was attended by members of Shyamal Farmer Producer Company of Sonitpur district and the members of FPC of Lakhimpur district. Addressing the participants, Dr. Roji Chutia, Subject Matter Specialist (Agronomy), said that mechanization was a must for today's farming and thus it could be further utilized for improving the agriculture scenario of Assam. She further stated that Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sonitpur will provide technical guidance and help to the Farmer Producer Company.
Rupsikha Goswami, Assistant Project Scientist of APART, welcomed the participants and advised the farmers to cultivate stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) through mechanization which will further increase income of the farmers. Vivek Kumar, Specialist of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), acted as resource person for the training and guided the farmers in establishing a resource efficient crop production system through preparation of Mat nursery and usage of mechanical rice transplanter.
Dibyarishi Bhattacharjya, Junior Researcher of IRRI, also provided technical guidance to the farmers regarding mechanization and also highlighted the economic benefit through adoption of such technologies. P Srichandan, Research Technician of IRRI, demonstrated the preparation of Mat nursery and mechanical transplanting in the field and explained different parts of the transplanter and their usage to the farmers. He was assisted by Goutam Borah and Debajit Bhuyan, Research Technicians under APART during the entire programme. During the three days' training, technicians of RI Agriculture company also actively participated and explained different parts and functioning of the rice transplanter. The farmers expressed their satisfaction over such training programmes for smooth running of their FPC and provided their valuable feedback in the end.
Also Watch: