Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged farmers to adopt water-efficient practices, micro-irrigation, crop diversification and hydroponics to raise water productivity and farm incomes. He was speaking to farmers from Vidisha, Raisen and Sehore districts of Madhya Pradesh at the close of a two-day training programme at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi.
The course, "Advanced Water Management Techniques with Special Emphasis on Micro-Irrigation for Higher Water Productivity", was run by IARI's Water Technology Centre under Madhya Pradesh's Krishi Road Map.
Farmers were shown solar-powered automated basin irrigation, drip irrigation combined with mulching, subsurface drip systems, automated drip fertigation for medicinal plants and dragon fruit, irrigation scheduling, water management for flower crops under natural farming, rainwater conservation and water quality management, along with water-efficient varieties and practices for rice, soybean, wheat, chickpea and vegetables.
Field visits covered hydroponics and aquaponics, vertical farming, polyhouses, integrated farming system models, agrivoltaics, automated irrigation, an Amrit Sarovar water body, seed production and advanced farm implements.
ICAR Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) Dr Rajbir Singh, IARI director Dr Ch. Srinivasa Rao and Water Technology Centre project director Dr P. S. Brahmanand were among those attending.
Photo: ABHIJEET / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: ICAR
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