Farmers scientist interaction

    A meeting of farmer-scientist interaction was jointly organized by ICAR-CCARI, Goa and ICAR-KVK, North Goa, held at the Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Conference Hall, ICAR-CCARI, Old Goa on August 29, 2024. The main goal of the interaction program was to address current agricultural issues, with a focus on climate-resilient agriculture and bio-fortified crops. Scientists from ICAR-CCARI, Goa, and ICAR-KVK, North Goa, participated in this program and interacted with farmers and farm women from Anjuna and the surrounding villages in Bardez Taluka. Farmer-scientist interactions benefit the farming community by providing immediate solutions to problems that farmers face on a daily basis and encouraging the adoption of new, improved technologies. They are also more beneficial to scientists who receive direct feedback for developing need-based research strategies. During the program, farmers addressed plenty of questions about agriculture and related sectors. Also, farmers received immediate remedial measures to address their queries, such as ways to manage termites, root rot in fruits and vegetables, pecking behaviour of poultry birds, availability of pure breed stock of pets and poultry birds, and mortality problems. As part of the event, awareness was raised about the use of fermented organic manure and fermented liquid organic manures, as well as climate-resilient bio-fortified crops. Forty-nine farmers and farm women (32 male and 17 female) took part in and benefited from this program. Dr N.Bommayasamy, Dr Sanjaykumar Udharwar, Dr Shirish Narnaware, Dr Gokuldas, P.P., Dr Susitha Rajkumar, and Dr Amiya Ranjan Sahu organized the event.