The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi interacted with the beneficiaries of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra today via video conferencing and also addressed the gathering on the occasion. Since the beneficiaries hailed from the village Tibber of district Gurdaspur, the Prime Minister directly engaged with the members of Young Innovative Farmers Group who were the beneficiaries of the Crop Residue Management Scheme.
On behalf of the group, Sardar Gurbinder Singh Bajwa who is also a President of the Crop Residue Managers Association formed by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gurdaspur, interacted with the PM. He told about the financial aid which they had received from the government in addition to explaining the benefits acquired by purchasing the crop residue management machinery. He said that Happy Seeder was one such key technological innovation for direct drilling of wheat after rice harvest which under residual moisture in fields, saved pre-sowing irrigation with surface retention of residues as mulch and without any preparatory tillage and burning. Moreover, the cost of sowing wheat with Happy Seeder was less as compared to conventional sowing of wheat; it saved one irrigation and if the paddy straw was retained regularly for four years in the field, the soil health improved which in turn reduced the use of chemical fertilizer. He said that they were using this machinery on custom hiring basis and catering to the needs of the small farmers in the radius of 30-35 km. He also told PM about other cheap and sustainable technologies like Surface Seeder and PAU Smart Seeder developed by PAU for the management of crop residue and benefit of the farmers, society and the country at large.
The programme at Tibber village of Gurdaspur district was graced by the presence of Dr Parvender Sheoran, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Zone-I, Ludhiana; and Dr GPS Sodhi, Additional Director of Extension Education PAU, Ludhiana. Exhibition regarding different activities being carried out by the KVK was also put up at the venue.
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