Discussions were held on technological interventions to each such sub-division of rice-fallow areas in Eastern India

The ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar recently organised a national seminar on ’Rice-fallow Management in Eastern India’. In his address, the Chief Guest, Dr Ramesh Chandra Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor, Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar stressed the need for redefining and sub-dividing the rice-fallow areas based on the amount of annual rainfall received. He also urged for separate technological interventions to each such sub-division of rice-fallow areas in Eastern India.

The Guest of Honor, Dr RK Sohane, Director (Extension Education), Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar opined that rice-fallow areas of eastern India held the potential for contributing significantly to food and nutritional security in the eastern regions.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr Ujjwal Kumar, Director, ICAR-RCER, Patna, Bihar briefed about the importance of rice-fallow management for improving the socio-economic condition of the farming community of the eastern regions of the country.

Delivering the Lecture on “Enhancing pulses production from rice-fallows areas: Strategies & policies,” Dr SK Chaturvedi, Dean (Agriculture), RLBCAU, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh suggested the technological interventions for realising the sustainable crop intensification by including short duration, high-yielding varieties of pulses like chickpea, lentil, grass pea, pea, green gram and black gram.

In his lecture on ’Oilseeds production in rice-fallows: A perspective,’ Dr PK Rai, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Bharatpur, Rajasthan outlined the Government of India’s various schemes that are aimed at promoting the oilseeds production in rice-fallow agro-ecology of eastern India.

In his lecture on ’Agronomic interventions for crop intensification in rice-fallow areas,’ Dr JS Mishra, Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh underlined the possible agronomic interventions based on his research performed for improving the productivity of rice-fallow areas in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Deliberating on ’Water management in the rice-fallow production system,’ Dr KG Mandal, Director, ICAR-Mahatma Gandhi Integrated Farming Research Institute, Motihari, Bihar emphasised the delineation of rice-fallow areas, development of water harvesting structures and Integrated Farming System Modules for improving the livelihood of farmers in rice-fallow areas of eastern India.

The seminar aimed at creating awareness about the technological interventions and adoption to bring about sustainable crop intensification in rice-fallow areas of eastern India registered total participation by 405 participants from 26 states of India, Nepal, Germany and the US.