A Farmers training- cum-field day was organized on 1st February 2024 at the Directorate under NICRA project for Scheduled caste farmers. Dr. J.S. Mishra, Director of the Institute inaugurated the program and talked about weed management challenges under changing climate and emphasized on adoption of climate resilient crop varieties and management practices. He also talked about how to take care of plant saplings given to the farmers to achieve higher yield benefits.

Dr. Shobha Sondhia, Principal Scientist and Course Director of this program talked about need of research work on crop-weed interaction and efficacy of herbicides under changing climate. She said the need of dissemination of research outcome to the farmers on weed management practices in different crops under changing climate to achieve the higher yield. Dr. R.P. Dubey, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) talked about weed management in millets. Dr. P.K. Mukherjee, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) delivered a lecture on weed management in Rabi crops. He informed the farmers about suitable time of application and doses of herbicides. In interactive session, various weed management queries of the farmers were answered. Plant saplings of Apple ber, Awla, Neebu, Mango, Cheeku, Jamun, vegetables seed kit and nozzles were distributed to 36 Farmers of Archa, Padariya, Nunsar, Luhari, Jujhari , Manegaon, Kachpura villages of Panagar and Gosalpur localities under the NICRA project.

A field visit was also made and research experiments on weed management practices in Rabi crops, weed cafeteria and FACE, OTC facilities under NICRA project were shown to the farmers. Dr. Deepak Pawar, Scientist (Agriculture Biotechnology) and Dr. Dasari Sreekanth, Scientist (Plant physiology) coordinated the training. Vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Sreekanth.