Women of Jharkhand – known for their incredible role in setting a benchmark in numerous projects in assistance with the State Government– were seen in a huge number at the maiden ‘Global Agriculture and Food Summit 2018’ concluding ceremony here on Friday.
The summit, which has opened the doors of opportunity for the farmers, stakeholders in agro sectors received much applaud from the women of different Self-Help Groups (SHGs), who for the first time got an opportunity to be the part the mega event.
With an aim to convert this vegetables belt into exotic fruits, plants valley, twinkle in the eyes of the female participants spoke everything. The enthusiasm level of the female participants there was on cloud nine as for most of them it was a whole new experience.
From learning new methods for increasing the productivity of the traditional crops like pulses, paddy to getting first hand inputs about exotic plants cultivation through advance technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet to things (IOT), the ladies gathered handful of information from the venue.
Most of them opined that their wish is to shift from traditional farming practices to value added cultivation which has huge market demands. Be it the group of SHGs from Khunti or from other far-flung areas, the participants enthusiastically shared inputs on how this summit will prove beneficial for them in future and in nurturing their agro-businesses.
“Cultivation of herbs, exotic plants like strawberries, orchid, lavenders including the pulpy tomatoes require special guidance and training. The market demands have changed a lot here in the past few years. From livelihood prospects, the summit has given us an idea on how to go about. Cultivation of traditional crops does not give us much monetary benefit now,” said Sangeeta Toppo from Itki Block who along with her SHG team participated in the event.
Similarly, another participant, Laxmi Devi who hails from naxal affected Khunti district said, “Recently with the help of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) I have started focusing on agriculture sector.
Concept of kitchen gardens started at a few selected houses in my district will benefit out of this summit as we got know about drip irrigation method, single window system, food processing units including how to counter the problems which often comes in the way especially when one has adopted the ex-situ techniques.”