PAU to hold two-day Kisan Mela, farmers invited

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 19

The preparations are afoot at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) for the two-day Kisan Mela to be held on September 22 and 23 at Ludhiana.

The theme of the mela is “Cut expenses on social functions.” Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, called upon the farmers to participate in this mela. “This mela is a storehouse of agricultural knowledge where farmers, rural women and youth get updated information about improved crop varieties, their production-protection technologies and improved home management practices. Therefore, the mela plays an important role in dissemination of improved knowledge among farming community,” the VC said.

Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, PAU, said the new research agenda was to develop technologies that improve productivity under lowered rather than enhanced input regimes.

This has become necessary in the face of depleting natural resource base, ecological contra-indications and climate perturbations, he further said. Varietal improvement has to adopt more sophisticated and accelerated technologies to meet these challenges, he stressed.

In this mela, farmers will be apprised of two new wheat varieties, Unnat PBW 343 and Unnat PBW 550, which have been developed through biotechnological intervention, he informed.

In addition, experts will inform about another wheat variety, PBW Zn 1, which possesses higher grain zinc content, he said.

The mela will also acquaint the farmers with residue management machinery and several other improved crop varieties and technologies, he added.

Dr Ashok Kumar, Director of Extension Education, PAU, said field demonstrations and exhibitions on improved varieties, production and protection technologies, bee-keeping, mushroom cultivation, nutritional gardening, and protected cultivation will be organised for the farmers.

Besides, the seeds of improved varieties of field crops, vegetables and fodders; saplings of fruit plants and farm literature will also be sold to the farmers, he added.

The exhibition of other farm inputs including fertilisers, pesticides, farm implements and machinery will also be put up at the mela, he informed.

In addition, the mela will see competition in crop produce and home science, he said. On the occasion, farmers and farm woman will also be honoured for excellence in agriculture and allied occupations, he added.