Youth Agriculture Training Programme from 24-29th Feb 2020 at ARS, Tornala

A six days training programme for 19 selected young farmers (14 boys and five girls) of Panyal and Badampet villages of Sanga Reddy district was organized at ARS, Tornala as a part of collaboration between Cornell-Sathguru Foundation for Development (CSFD) and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU) and with the financial support from Aurobindo Pharma Foundation. The main objective of the programme is to impart skill oriented training and improve socio-economic conditions of small and marginal farmers there by retaining the youth in Agriculture. The programme was co-ordinated by Dr. A.V. Ramanjaneyulu, Sr. Scientist (Agro.) & Head and Mrs. A. Saritha, Scientist (Pl. Br.), ARS, Tornala. The inaugural session on 24-02-2020 was attended by Mr. M. Ravinder Reddy, Chairman, SUDA, Siddipet as Chief Gust, Ms. Raja Rajeswari, Vice President-Devleoment, CSFD, Dr. S. Sridevi, Principal, APT, Tornala, Mr. K. Srihari Goud, ZPTC, Siddipet, Mr. Y. Devaiah, Sarpanch, Mr. S. Yadagiri, Vice MPP and Mr. A. Parameswar Goud, Director, PACS, Tornala, Dr. N. Sainath, Scientist (SSAC), Ms. D. Swetha and Dr. E. Umarani, Scientist (Pl. Br.), ARS, Tornala. The young farmers were selected based on the bench mark survey conducted by CSFD. There were four farmers with SSC, nine with Intermediate, one person with ITI, one person with Diploma, one person with Ag. Diploma, two with Under graduation and one with Post graduation qualification. A total of 25 class room lectures were conducted with 21 resource persons drawn from PJTSAU, Department of Rural Development, Fisheries and Ground water, Farmer Producer Organization (FPO), Progressive farmer(s) were held, broadly covering different aspects of four modules of Agriculture (Seed Production, Integrated Farming Systems, Rain water management, Micro-irrigation, Soil sampling and soil test based recommendations, Mechanization, Organic and natural farming, Integrated Pest and Disease Management, Vertebrate Pest management, ICTs, ground water management and NREGS activities), Horticulture (Mango, Papaya, Guava and Protected cultivation), Animal Husbandry (Livestock, Poultry and Integrated aquaculture and fodders) and Agri business management (Opportunities, branding, business oriented Agriculture, incubations and market intelligence). Besides, several demo units on Farm ponds, Organic/natural farming experiments, Sprinkler/rain gun/drip irrigation units and experiments, fall army worm; cotton picking machine; incorporation of cotton stubbles with rotavator/multi crop shredder, vermicompost units, soil sampling, wild boar/monkey/bird control machines were shown to the farmers. Furthermore, exposure visits were conducted to Ibrahimpur (Farm pond, rain guage and recharge shaft); Salendri (recharge shaft and successful cropping pattern) villages in Siddipet district on 27-2-20, Center of Excellence (Flowers and Vegetables), Jeedimetla, AICRP on Farm Implements and Machinery, AICRP on Integrated Farming Systems and AINP on Vertebrate Pest Management schemes in PJTSAU on 29-02-20. A valedictory function was held at AINP on Vertebrate Pest Management on the evening of 29-02-20 in which Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Dr.V. Praveen Rao participated as a Chief Guest, interacted with the farmers and suggested to practice Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) based on cost-risk-returns analysis, use university produced good quality seeds of short duration varieties, adopt soil test based fertilizer recommendations, legume as intercrop, micro-irrigation methods, ICTs and also share your knowledge with fellow farmers. He advocated the farmers to continue farming instead of quitting as we need to produce more and more food to meet the needs of present and future generations and finally distributed certificates to the farmers. Dr. R. Jagadeeshwar, Director of Research, PJTSAU and Dr. P. Jagan Mohan Rao, ADR, CTZ, RARS, Warangal lauded the efforts of team of ARS, Tornala for successful conduct of the programme and also distributed Vyavasaya Panchangams to the farmers. Ms. Raja Rajeswari from CSFD thanked the university for the kind support in organizing the training programme at ARS, Tornala.