ICAR-Indian Soybean Research Institute, Indore and Solidaridad, Bhopal on Thursday jointly organized an online Collaborative Training Program "Climate Smart Soybean Production Technologies for Increasing Soybean Productivity" with the participation of more than 250 farmers and field staff associated with Solidaridad, Bhopal from the states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
Initially, the Coordinator of the training programme, B. U. Dupare welcomed the distinguishing guests, trainee participants and also briefed about various technical sessions like climate smart varieties, climate smart insect-pest management and climate resilient practices like BBF and Ridge & Furrow planting methods especially included in the training programme.
In her brief inaugural address, Nita Khandekar, Acting Director of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, said that the productivity of soybean is largely affected due to various biotic factors like increased pressure of pest and diseases as well as adverse climatic conditions like drought and incessant rainfall at the time of maturity of soybean crop. She also highlighted the need to increase the productivity of oilseed crops including soybean which is greatly contributing toward achieving self-sufficiency in vegetable oil production.
Khandekar also said that the farmers should get rid of old soybean varieties like J.S. 95-60 which can be replaced by new varieties such as JS. 20-69, JS. 20-98, NRC 127 which are resistant to pest and diseases. Further, she expressed the hope that the institute would be able to meet the seed production targets of new varieties (NRC 130, NRC 138, NRC 142 etc.) recently notified by the Govt. of India.
Suresh Motwani, General Manager, Solidaridad informed that his organization is working with nearly 60,000 farmers for dissemination of technologies and climate resilient practices developed and recommended by the ICAR-IISR, Indore.
On this occasion, mainly five technical sessions were organized for farmers, wherein IISR scientists had in-depth discussion with the participating farmers and field staff.
This included lectures delivered by Mrinal Kuchlan on “Improved Soybean Varieties, Seed Production Technology and Germination Testingâ€; R.K. Verma on “Weed Management in Soybeans†which was followed by S.D. Billore who spoke on “Climate Resilient Agronomic Practices in the Changing Climatic Scenario’. The session also included lectures on management of insect-pests and diseases which were discussed by Dr. Lokesh Meena and Dr Laxman Singh Rajput.
