Winter school on resource conservation begins at PAU

ICAR sponsored training attracting many peoples

Ludhiana: 5th October 2016: (Pushpinder Kaur//Punjab Screen):

A three-week winter school on “Advance Training Programme on Resource Conservation and Paddy Residue Management” began in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering (FMPE), Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. As many as 18 scientists/researchers working in the ICAR/State and Central Agricultural Universities of the country are attending the winter school, organized under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr (Mrs) Neelam Grewal, Dean, Post Graduate Studies, said, “The sustainable management of natural resources is the need of the hour keeping in view the issues such as widespread land degradation, ground water imbalances, contamination of food and environmental pollution.” This training programme would go a long way in promoting the application of farm innovations and accelerating the collaborative development among various public research organizations, farmers, private sector and other stakeholders.

Dr J.S. Mahal, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, PAU said that the use of advanced technologies to produce food and fibre are ecologically, economically and socially beneficial. He told that PAU is handling various research projects in the area of natural resource management and has also recommended number of technologies like laser leveler, happy seeder, leaf color chart and drip system for farmer’s use.

Dr Gursahib Singh Manes, Senior Research Engineer-cum-Head, FMPE said, “To have holistic solutions to the emerging problems, there is a need to set future priority research on machinery for natural resource management. The focus should also be on precision and conservation agriculture.”

Dr S.S. Thakur, Director of winter school, said that interactive discussions on theoretical concepts, and hands-on exercises on tools and techniques will be followed for better comprehension. Participants will also be introduced to conservation farming, precision farming concepts and receive hands-on experience through demonstrations on actual machinery.

Dr Manjeet Singh, Senior Research Engineer and Coordinator of the school, proposed the vote of thanks.