Central Coalfields limited (CCl) under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative has arranged a training of farmers of lupungtoli, an adopted village(Ranchi) with aim to improve quality life of the local community and society at large. Besides, the company has been arranging similar training programmes and other CSR activities in its command areas.
lupungtoli village has been adopted by CCl for developing it as a model village. A total of 27 farmers including two women of lupungtoli village underwent a three-day training (March 18-20) on mechanised farming of vegetables and fruits. They are mainly small farmers engaged in horticulture activity.
The training programme was organised at Central Horticulture Training Center, East Zone, which comes under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Palandu, Namkum.
Addressing the participants, Dr. Shivendra Kumar, Chief Scientist and Head, ICAR briefed all the participants about scientific approach of farming where limited water and agriculture land is required for maximum yield. Another two resource persons- Dr. Balkrishna Jha, Sr. Scientist (Horticulture) and Vrinda Prasad, technical officer- also imparted training to them.
After imparting the training at classroom, villagers were also taken to farming area, which is situated in the green and lush area of 164 acre of Horticulture Center, Palundu for practical training. They were introduced with a new technique of farming in plastic sheet which known as ‘Malch Farming.’ In the process of planting in the Malch Farming, small holes are made in the plastic sheet for planting saplings resulting less consumption of water.
On the final day of training session, farmers were given certificate of training. Mangal Mahto, farmer, who echoed voice of his colleagues and said that farmers were confined to only two crops in whole year due to the shortage of water and now all of us will able to continue horticulture throughout the year. “Our primary source of income is farming and now with help of the new technique of farming, we would able to generate more income. Also, we will be able to provide good quality of life to our children in future,” Mahto said.
S N Singh, General Manager(CSR), S Bakshi Sr. Manager(CSR) and P Mishra, Manager(CSR) coordinated the training programme.