Virtual kisan mela kicks off in Amritsar village

Amritsar, March 14

PAU’s series of virtual kisan melas on the theme ‘Soil, air and water conservation; practice this for future conservation’ began with the first mela at Nag Kalan village here on Monday. Chief guest Dr Shammi Kapoor, Registrar, PAU, said Punjab has played a commendable role in making the country self-sufficient in food grains. “But on the other hand, it has led to over-exploitation of groundwater, which is a serious issue in the contemporary agriculture, he observed,” he said.

For the conservation of water, the PAU has recommended early maturing, less water consuming and high yielding varieties, as PR 126, PR 121, PR 124, PR 127 and PR 129 as compared to Pusa 44.

He said the direct seeded rice area has touched 6 lakh hectares in Punjab, which has resulted in saving of water as well as labour during the last kharif season. Dr Kapoor advocated the use of drip irrigation to save water, fertiliser and agro-chemicals and management of paddy straw to reach the target of zero burning. Dr AS Dhatt, Director of Research, said the university has recommended new varieties, namely PR 131 and PR 130 of rice, PAU Bt 2 and PAU Bt 3 of cotton, Punjab Baby Corn 1 of maize, Mash 883 of mash, SL 45 of fodder (sorghum) and PCB 166 of fodder (bajra) for cultivation. Dr Ashok Kumar, DEE, said the university has launched several apps which have received an overwhelming response. It is issuing a weekly digital newspaper ‘Kheti Sandesh’ on every Wednesday. Dr Kumar called upon farmers to give a missed call on 82880-57707 to subscribe to it on WhatsApp. —