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Varanasi, March 15 (HS). ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi is focusing on training farmers to bring about a change in agriculture while maintaining the purity and cleanliness of the holy river Ganga.
On Friday, IIVR organized an awareness cum training program in Gangpur village in collaboration with the farmers doing farming in the banks of Ganga. In this, emphasis was laid on sustainable cultivation of cucurbit vegetables, grafted tomatoes and brinjal on Diara land and reducing the flow of pesticides in the Ganga.
Farmers were told that production pressure on arable land is increasing due to population growth and increasingly irregular water cycles due to climate change. Climate change-induced events, such as flash floods, are occurring more frequently, and are increasing the dispersion of river beds. In such a situation, farming along the river banks can contribute to reducing the production pressure on agricultural land.
Farmers should take advantage of this fertility by promoting the cultivation of cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and squash, a new initiative of ICAR-IIVR under the leadership of Professor Tushar Kanti Behera, Director of the Institute. It was told that under the ongoing project, the institute is providing training and agricultural resources to the farmers to adopt modern, sustainable farming methods. This includes the use of organic fertilizers, integrated pest management (IPM) techniques and water-saving irrigation methods. An important aspect of this initiative is to focus on reducing the use of chemical pesticides, which is a major factor in pollution in the river Ganga. Head, Vegetable Improvement Division, IIVR, Dr. Nagendra Rai, while presiding over the program, laid special emphasis on adopting scientific farming methods through technical information.
Dr. Rakesh Kumar Dubey, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator of the River Bed Project, explained the objectives of the research under this project funded by Uttar Pradesh Agricultural Research Council (UPCAR). In the awareness cum training program, expert doctors Kuldeep Srivastava, Anurag Chaurasia, Atmanand Tripathi and Manjunath Gowda also told important things to the farmers. Dr. Govind Narayan Singh from Agrimitra FPO of the district and Shivam Singh, Pradeep Pandey, Manish Singh from the institute also participated. More than 200 farmers participated in the awareness cum training program 'Krishak Pathshala'.
