Discussions were held on DSR technology
Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Ropar under the aegis of the Directorate of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and ICAR-ATARI Zone-1, Ludhiana organised a programme on ’Orientation cum regional dialogue on mechanised direct-seeded rice’ in collaboration with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-SARC, Varanasi and PAU Ludhiana. Around 50 farmers and delegates participated in this event.
Dr GS Makkar, Deputy Director (Trg.), KVK Ropar welcomed the delegates and participants. He shared successful examples of farmers practising DSR technology in district Ropar. Dr Makkar also elaborated on the prospects and challenges in the mass-scale adoption of DSR technology. He stressed that there are several successful examples of water-saving with DSR technology without any yield penalty and shared that KVK Ropar is vigorously leading the campaign to popularise this technology.
Dr Pardeep Sagwal, Associate Scientist, IRRI SARC Varanasi highlighted various novel aspects of research on DSR under progress at IRRI. Dr. Sagwal emphasised the need for the conservation of natural resources and stressed that DSR technology is a good option in this direction.
Dr Buta Singh Dhillon, Agronomist (Rice), PAU discussed the novel agronomic interventions including the selection of short duration varieties, fertiliser scheduling, integrated weed management and other related aspects of direct-seeded rice technology.
Sumit Soni, Associate Manager, IRRI Education shared the various farmer oriented programmes run under the umbrella of IRRI. Rajesh Rathi and Vikram Malik from Bayer Crop Science and Vishnu Trivedi and Rakesh Marwaha from Ambuja Cement Foundation also participated in the programme. On this occasion, the team of KVK scientists including Dr Aparna, Dr Pawan, Ankurdeep Preety and Dr Princy arranged an exhibition depicting various novel recommended technologies of PAU.
