Training given to students, AAOs
The Agriculture Department of Sambalpur organised an orientation programme –‘Fasal Surakshya Yojana’ (FSA) on Monday with participants from 43 vulnerable blocks of 13 districts of the State.
The aim was to train the assistant agriculture officers (AAOs) of each block and 90 students of Agriculture and Horticulture College of Chipilima to come to the need of the farmers when they face any problem.
At the same time, they were instructed to train farmers to meet any situation instantly and contact the AAOs and the students when they face any problem, especially due to pest attack all through the year, informed Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA) Khagendra Jena here.
Two students will go to each block and with help from the respective AAO they will make aware the farmers about pest menace and how to curb it with the latest technical inputs to prevent crop loss, Jena added.
“Since losses due to pest attack are a major concern for the farmers, E-Pest surveillance has augmented the ability of the Agriculture Department and farmers’ empowerment to provide timely assistance to the farmers,” said Jena.
But looking at the practicability, it is seen that some farmers experience delay in accessing timely technical inputs for effective pest control. And to overcome the problem, the department wants to introduce a pest monitoring system in the entire State that will check spread of the pest and disease, reduce the crop loss, assess pest endemic pockets, timely issue of advisory for pest management and forecast the problems in advance, said the DDA.
And for this purpose, OUAT final year students of Chipilima will work as ‘Pest Scouts’ in 57 vulnerabe blocks of the State for which today’s orientation programme for 43 blocks was organised, he added.
Agriculture College Chipilima Dean PK Patnaik, two plant protection officers from the State headquarters-Sachidananda Panda and Rabi Narayan Panda, were the resource persons in the orientation programme.