The Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Promotion Project (HPCDP) is organising a national workshop on ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Crop Diversification’ at Dharamshala on May 7 and 8. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur will inaugurate the workshop, while Agriculture Minister Ram lal Markanda will preside over the function. Takema Sakamoto, Chief Representative of JICA-India will be the Guest of Honour.
Around 150 experts from all over the country are expected to participate in the workshop. The workshop will focus on the ‘challenges in shifting from traditional crops to high value & commercial crops’ as its theme, with the objective to share the innovations and lessons learnt with the policy makers and managers under the HPCDP-JICA-ODA and similar funded projects by JICA.
The projects staff, Krishak Vikas Associations (KVAs), Self Help Group (SHGs) of the project will share their experiences of good agriculture practices being adopted in this sector in other JICA-ODA funded projects in the country with officers of the Union and State governments, agricultural universities and institutions, agro marketing and post-harvest and other experts.
In the workshop, technical sessions will be held on the challenges and opportunities in participatory irrigation management systems, besides, discussing the necessity and scope of micro-irrigation systems at different locations, farm mechanization, solar pumping of water for irrigation, post harvest technology and food processing, creating value chain and marketing of farm produce and food products.