Manipur: Central Agricultural University in Imphal to introduce natural farming in undergraduate and postgraduate courses

The Central Agricultural University (CAU) headquartered in Imphal has announced that it will be introducing natural farming in the undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the next academic session. This announcement was made by Vice-Chancellor Dr Anupam Mishra during a chat with reporters on the sidelines of the 3-day International Conference on ‘Natural farming for Revitalizing Environment and Resilient Agriculture’ held on March 17.

Dr. Mishra said, "We're going to start for under-graduation and post-graduation. That's why we're creating awareness as well as new methods of agriculture." He also emphasized the importance of taking care of all the components of agriculture such as water, soil, and air, as they all come from nature.

The 3-day conference was inaugurated by Manipur Governor Sushri Anusuiya Uikey in the presence of Works Minister Govindas Konthoujam, MLA Nishikant Singh Sapam, Vice-Chancellor Dr PS Pandey(RLB CAU, Pusa), Dean (College of Agriculture) Dr Indira Sarangthem. Governor Uikey said that the government has set a target of helping one crore farmers to adopt natural farming in the next three years. She also informed that schemes like the National Agriculture Development Scheme and Indian Natural farming System were introduced to promote natural farming.

The 3-day conference will see 25 lead papers presented by scientists of agriculture and allied disciplines, out of which eight papers will be presented by scientists of eight foreign countries including Thailand, Bangladesh, Germany, Russia, Singapore, and the USA. In addition, 135 research papers in different technical sessions will be presented, and each session will also have a poster presentation on the theme concerned, with a total of 198 posters expected to be displayed.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has constituted a committee to develop natural farming courses and materials at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, and Dr Anupam Mishra was appointed as Member Secretary. This move is expected to have a significant impact on agriculture and the environment in the region, and it will be interesting to see the results of this initiative in the coming years.