A visit to TNPL, Kagithapuram, Karur.

Seminar for Pulp wood tree growers under National Agriculture Innovation Project at Tamilnadu Newsprint and Papers Limited., Kagithapuam, Karur.





A tour around TNPL premises:
Eucalyptus Clones ready for supply:



TNPL - Eucalyptus clones inside mist chamber:



TNPL - Eucalyptus Clonal mother beds:


TNPL - Clonal Production Center, Mist chambers and primary hardening centers:


TNPL - Casuarina junghuhniana clonal trial plots:


TNPL - Casuarina junghuhniana and Eucalyptus clonal trial plots:

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar

Seminar on Tree cultivation

"Workshop on Oil palm cultivation and selection, cultivation of Tree crops suitable for Paper and Biomass Energy Industries"

Venue: Donavur Fellowship, Kalakad, Tirunelveli Dist., Tamilnadu, India.

• Date: 28/01/2010, Thursday, Time: 10.30 AM to 4.30PM

Number of Participants : 188
Programme in brief:

• Oil palm cultivation - M/s. Godrej Agrovet
• Trees for Biomass Power - M/s. Auro Mira Energy Co.
• Teak cultivation - Forest Extension Officer Mr.Amalraj,
• Speeches by Kumil, Melia Dubia cultivating farmers.
• Pulp wood trees - A.O., TNPL, Karur.
  
• Bank finance for tree cultivation - Senior Manager, Canara Bank.
• "Insects are our friends" - by N.Selvam, Entamologist, Kovilpatti.

The administrator of 'Donavur Fellowship' Mr.Jeremiah Rajanesan had made elaborate arrangements for this seminar. It is a real treat to witness numerous varieties of trees in thousands of numbers in the fellowship campus. All the trees in their smart little arboretum were painted either with the botanical name or with the local name for the benefit of farmers.

Conducting a Tree growers meeting at this kind of natures best setting at the foot of western ghats is a pleasant and ever memorable experience.

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar

Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela - 2010 New Delhi

In my last blog post I have discussed only negative features about the 'Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela - 2010'. It will be a great injustice if I don't mention the following positive features of the above Mela also:

• Live demonstrations on scientific production technologies of wheat, cereals, oil seeds, pulses, vegetables and flowers.

• Technologies for protected cultivation of vegetables and flowers for higher returns.
  

• Demo plots in hundreds of acres:

• Conducted tours to view the demo plots inside the campus:

• A beautiful looking Mela ground and the aesthetically planned stalls:
  

• A very simple but very informative boards:(About Neem coated Urea, Pusa Hydrogel and Nemagel a nematicide.)
  

• Display and sale of agriculture books, periodicals and VCDs.(Though mostly in Hindi)
  
• Direct interaction among scientists and farmers.
• Display of farm machinery though very few in number.

Aqua ferti Seed drill:

A model of Land leveler:


Regards,
Vishnu Sankar

Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela 2010 - New Delhi

The 'Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela' is a Mela conducted by Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) under aegis of Indian council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) annually at its PUSA campus, New Delhi.


The main focus was towards ICAR released new varieties of Wheat, Mustard and other such crops and Vegetables endemic to Northern India Only.

IARI has sent a mere letter about the Mela to all the District Collectors in all the States without any details about the Mela and the programme menu. Since the Mela theme for this year 2010 is 'Agriculture Technology for National Prosperity', our District Collector for Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu acted very cleverly and ordered Agriculture, Horticulture, Agri Engineering, Agri Marketing and Fisheries Department to select eligible farmers for this mela.

A team of 11 farmers reached NewDelhi on 4-3-10 and to our shock there was nothing in the Mela for the farmers who are into Agriculture Mechanization, Agri Marketing and Fisheries.


The live Horticulture Demo plots shown to us was without fertigation, mulching and other Precision farming practices that are adopted by the farmers here in Tamilnadu. The Vegetable crops grown there are for North Indian climatic conditions and even the mist chambers erected there was to protect the plants from severe North Indian frost, rather than for the reasons we use them here in Tamilnadu.

Onion in full bloom to collect seeds:



So, briefly we can conclude that all the seed varieties and the agronomic practices adopted there are in no way connected to us and it is entirely foreign.

The ICAR publication division has opened a stall in the mela and a vast majority of the books and VCDs were in Hindi only, benefiting farmers from Hindi speaking states. The presentations in the conference were in Hindi and most of the brochures, pamphlets displayed were in Hindi, So a farmer from a non-Hindi speaking state is stood to gain nothing.

There are some positive features about the mela which I would like to discuss in my next blog post.

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar