Leh: The importance of agriculture and farmers is vested in the famous quote of Brenda Schoepp, ‘My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer’.
Keeping this intellect in mind, Prof. (Dr.) S.K Mehta, Vice Chancellor, University of Ladakh, collaborated with Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Haryana and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh, to organize an impactful and fruitful workshop for the farmers of Leh district at Sindhu Sanskriti Kendra, here.
The workshop was titled “Safe and judicious use of pesticides and application of new generation formulations for crop protection in vegetable crops.” Stanzin Chosphel, Executive Councillor for Agriculture, LAHDC was the chief guest of the workshop.
He mentioned that this workshop was of utmost importance for their farmers and it would lead and develop new horizons of sustainable agriculture in Ladakh. Vice Chancellor UoL, the Guest of Honour of the workshop applauded the learning spirit of farmers of Leh, who attended the workshop in bone chilling cold weather (-20 degree C). He emphasized that the sustainable development of Ladakh is impossible without promoting sustainable agriculture in Ladakh.
He assured the farmers that the University of Ladakh is dedicated towards the benefits and upskilling of farmers of Ladakh to achieve sustainable development of Ladakh through sustainable agriculture. One of the farmer participants from Changspa mentioned that information on Onion Maggot and biopesticides was very helpful as we take care of onion crops as children from plantation time and later it gets spoiled due to different diseases but this workshop is helpful for me.
There was an overwhelming response and a total of 369 farmers participated in the workshop. Dr. Mohana Krishna Reddy, Director Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Gurugram Haryana welcomed the farmers and dignitaries. He praised the UoL and LAHDC for organising such an eventful event for the benefit of farmers. He promised to organize more workshops in future to educate and train farmers about biopesticides.
The workshop witnessed a book release titled as “Integrated Management of Onion Maggot in Leh district” by Stanzin Chosphel. An important talk was delivered by Dr. Tsering Stobdan, Sr. Scientist Defence Institute of High-Altitude Research (DIHAR) Leh, on Onion Maggot. The department of agriculture Leh advocated the adoption of organic farming and educated the farmers about it.
Pankaj Rastogi, Regional Director- -Jammu, Nation Board for Workers Education and Development also graced the event and apprised about e-shram cards and its importance to farmers. Vice Chancellor, University of Ladakh thanked the farmers for their curiosity to learn about biopesticides, organic farming and their role in sustainable agriculture practices in Ladakh.
Two dedicated sessions were held by Scientists from IPFT on Biopesticides formulation and sustainable agriculture methods. The Chief Guest applauded the efforts of Vice Chancellor UoL for his keen interest in farmer education of Ladakh for sustainable agriculture.
He proposed that the LAHDC-Leh and University of Ladakh would like to sign an MoU with Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Gurugram to cater the needs of Farmers of Ladakh and Ladakh specific sustainable agriculture projects.
Dr. Lalitesh Thakur, Scientist IPFT Gurugram Haryana delivered the vote of thanks. He extended an ocean of thanks to Prof. S.K. Mehta and Stanzin Chosphel for their intensive efforts to educate the farmers on sustainable agriculture and biopesticides. Finally IPFT distributed ‘Farmers Kit’ to all the farmers.
