NIRJULI, 7 Jul: Agriculture Minister Gabriel D Wangsu urged the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science & Technology (NERIST) here to help the farmers of the state by introducing new and innovative tools and implements in the farm sector.
Wangsu, who inspected the institute’s agricultural engineering department during a whirlwind tour of various farms in the capital region on Saturday, underscored the importance of new technology in the farm sector, “for which,” he said, “introduction of new farm tools and machineries is vital.”
“The animal husbandry and dairy farming is a big department.
We can change and make the life of entire Arunachal if we work on it strategically. We have a lot of potential, but shouting slogans of having potential will not serve any purpose unless we put our energy practically into it,” he said.
During the inspection, NERIST faculty members, including Prof Sarsing Gao, Dr Madhusudhan Mishra, Dr Yamem Tamut and Dr Santosh Tamang, along with drone specialists, highlighted various drone applications at the Nirjuli cattle farm.
The team, through a demonstration, explained the various applications of drones in cattle farming, right from mapping of campus to monitoring, surveillance, health assessment, grazing management, and crop detection, among other things.
The minister, accompanied by Animal Husbandry & Fisheries Secretary Hage Tari, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Director Dr D Longri and Fishery Director Joyshil Taba, inspected the state cattle breeding centre-cum-dairy farm, poultry farm, and the Fish Farmers’ Training Centre here.
Wangsu said that “good works done in laboratories should be transferred to the farmers as the lab-to-land approach is paramount in achieving success, especially in the farming sector.”
The minister urged the dedicated staff to “spread such technical ideas to the nook and corner of the state.”
“Such technical and scientific knowledge should not be kept under lock and keys. They have to be shared with other progressive farmers of the state,” he said.
Later, the minister visited the Fish Farmers’ Training Centre in Emchi, and asked the officers to renovate the buildings – which are currently in a dilapidated condition – to enable new batches of trainees to start training soon. He also discussed plans to put up new infrastructure at the farm site to enable training of farmers of the state. (DIPR)
