ICAR-NBPGR RS Ranchi organized one day farmer’s “Awareness programme cum workshop on conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Schedule caste community” under SCSP scheme

One day awareness programme cum workshop on conservation of Plant Genetic Resources was organised on 21st September 2020 at Bangabad, Giridih district, Jharkhand in collaboration with KVK Bangabad under Schedule Cast Sub Plan. The theme of the programme was sustainable livelihood opportunities through local agro biodiversity management. Total 100 SC farmers from different villages of Giridih district participated in the programme. The main purpose of the event was to sensitize the farmers about the livelihood opportunities based on local agro biodiversity management and subsequently the importance of conservation of landraces/ local cultivars and protection of endangered species of crops of that area in order to protect the local agro biodiversity which is disappearing incessantly. Dr. Siddhartha Jaiswal CEO Business Planning and Development Unit of Birsa Agriculture College, Ranchi Jharkhand was the chief guest.
The programme started with the welcome address by the project coordinator KVK Bangabad. After welcome address, Dr. Shashi Bhushan Choudhary, OIC, NBPGR RS Ranchi addressed the gathering and introduced the objectives and mandates of ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. He also introduced the guest to the gathering and invited him to deliver his talk. Dr. Jaiswal in his lecture introduced the concept of “Amrit Krishi” and “Ganga Maa Mandal”. Amrit krishi is a scientific method of natural and ecological farming using local produce. Method of preparation of Amrit Jal was also shared with the farmers. Ganga maa mandal is a model of sustainable farming enabling small farmers to fulfil their daily nutritional requirement. Ms. Shephalika Amrapali, scientist NBPGR RS Ranchi interacted with farmers and sensitized the farmers about the importance of local and traditional varieties of crops and their conservation. During the interactive session, farmers shared their experience and the common problems they are facing in farming such as increased disease incidence and farming expenses. It also came to the knowledge of the panel that the cultivation of local/ traditional varieties and landraces has reduced remarkably as these have been replaced with hybrid and improved cultivars. They expressed their interested in local varieties and asked ICAR-NBPGR to help them as they do not have access to the seed anymore. Farm manager KVK Bangabad also interacted with the farmers and assured them of all kind of help in horticulture farming as and when required. The programme ended with vote of thanks and distribution of seeds and small agricultural tools kit containing Karahi, hand trowel, fork, spade, and sickle to 100 farmers. Technical officer Narendra Ram, supporting staff Vijay and Chandra Bhushan also participated in the programme and helped in organising the programme successfully.
Further, since the programme was conducted in a time when the whole country is facing COVID-19 pandemic the programme was conducted following the norms of social distancing, proper sanitization measures were undertaken and masks were distributed to all the participants to prevent the spread of COVID -19.

(Source:  Dr. Shephalika Amrapali, ICAR-NBPGR, RS, Ranchi