IMPHAL, July 6: A two-day Regional Seminar cum Workshop of National Agricultural Innovation Project (Component III : Sustainable Rural Livelihood Security) on “Site Specific Farming System Options for Disadvantaged Areas” concluded today. The seminar was inaugurated on 5th July, 2012 at ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Manipur Centre, Imphal.
The seminar was attended by C. A. Worchuiyo, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Tamenglong District, Manipur as Chief Guest. Dr. G. C. Munda, Consortia Principle Investigator, NAIP-Comp-III & HoD, Division of Natural Resource Management, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Meghalaya and Dr. S. V. Ngachan, Consortia Leader, NAIP-Comp-III & Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Meghalaya Guest of Honour and President, respectively.
Nearly fifty delegates including members of Consortia Monitoring Unit, programme leaders and scientists of ICAR, Central Agricultural University, Assam Agricultural University, Nagaland University, Mizoram University, Spices Board and NGOs from different North Eastern States are attending the seminar to assess the impact of various interventions tested at different clusters under the NAIP-Comp-III project. State officials from Agriculture and Horticulture and farmers from Tamenglong district have also attended the seminar.
In the inaugural function, the Welcome Address was delivered by Dr. N. Prakash, Joint Director, ICAR, Manipur Centre. C. A. Worchuiyo, DC, Tamenglong and Chief Guest of the function lauded ICAR for their successful initiative for improving the livelihood of the farmers through different interventions under NAIP. He also emphasized on human resource development and field level demonstration to bring a change in the mindset of the local people. Dr. G. C. Munda, PI of NAIP project mentioned the brief achievements of the NAIP projects in different North Eastern States. He also mentioned that it is high time to upscale the identified technologies in other areas and congratulated the consortia partners for their dedication and their hard work.
Dr. S. V. Ngachan, Consortium Leader of the NAIP project and President of the function emphasized sustainability and impact analysis of different interventions undertaken through NAIP-Comp-III to motivate real socio-economic interventions. He also mentioned the need of strengthening the inter-relationship among different NE States and working out some economic strategies to solve the critical market problem faced by the farmers. Dr. Ngachan also put emphasis on improvement of indigenous technologies through scientific interventions for better acceptability. In this two days seminar, the delegates have discussed their achievements of different interventions and also finalized the action plan for next two years. In the valedictory session, the house has agreed to implement the project through farming system mode and integrate different interventions coherently.