GORI, 23 Dec: The ICAR Arunachal Pradesh Centre here in Leparada district, in collaboration with the West Siang KVK, celebrated the National Farmer’s Day and the National Mushroom Day on Saturday, commemorating the birth anniversary of the fifth prime minister of India, Choudhary Charan Singh.
Forty farmers attended the programme, which was held at the community hall in Gori village.
The ICAR centre’s senior plant pathologist Dr Raghuveer Singh highlighted “the importance of mushrooms in daily diet,” while KVK Head Dr Manoj Kumar urged the farmers to “adopt natural farming in a holistic way,” and plant protection scientist Suraj Singh provided advice on “integrated insect-pest and disease management,” and urged the farmers to “avail the benefits under various schemes of the central government.”
Five best farmers were felicitated on the occasion.
In East Siang district, the All India Coordinated Research Project on Mushroom, under the College of Horticulture & Forestry (CHF) in headquarters Pasighat, celebrated the National Mushroom Day, themed ‘Mushrooms for doubling the farmers’ income’.
Addressing the participating farmers, CHF Dean Prof BN Hazarika highlighted “the nutritional security of mushroom,” and termed mushroom cultivation “a good venture for income generation for small and marginal farmers and SHGs.”
Prof Gireesh Chand highlighted “the status and scope of button mushroom in the region,” while Associate Professor Dr RC Shakywar elaborated the nutritional, medicinal and economic value of different kinds of mushroom cultivated in the state and the country.
Dr Shakywar also briefed the farmers on the initiatives taken by the Solan (HP)-based ICAR directorate of mushroom research for promotion of mushroom cultivation in the Northeast region.
