NONGPOH, Dec 5: The North Eastern Space Application Center (NESAC), College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences (CPGSAS), along with the Ri Bhoi Farmers Union (RBFU) on Saturday jointly observed the Meghalaya Farmers Day in a function held at Nongmawlong village of Umsning C&RD Block, Ri Bhoi District.
During the day, an awareness-cum-workshop was also conducted on a research project on Integration and Application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for crop health assessment and monitoring with Integrated Instrument Display System (IIDS) in providing evidence based agro-advisory services to farmers of North East’ also termed as ‘Drone Ha ka Buit Rep Thymmai’ in the local language, funded by the Digital India Corporation, MeitY, Government of India.
This programme was jointly organised by the NESAC, CPGSAS, Central Agricultural University Imphal, Umiam, and RBFU in conjunction with the celebration of the Meghalaya Farmers Day.
Director of NESAC, Dr SP Aggarwal, who was the chief guest, strongly accentuated the farmers to gross the benefits of drone applications in precision agriculture for sustainable livelihoods, while on the other hand,
Director of Extension Education, CAU, Imphal, Prof P Ranjit Sharma, inspired to pursue the evidence based agro-advisory services of DHaBReT on land planning, crops stress management, digital market linkages of their farm produce, etc. Prof P Ranjit Sharma was present at the programme virtually.
An exquisite drone survey and participatory mapping on the vestal agricultural land of the village was also executed by Scientist, SE, Victor Saikhom, and Scientist, SE of NESAC, Puyam Subhas Singh, and Assistant Prof, SSS, CPGS-AS, CAU(I), Umiam, Dr Rajkumar Josmee Singh.
The president of RBFU, Duruth Majaw, general secretary of RBFU, Brightstarfield Khongwir, and Headman of Nongmawlong Village, Ecolas Wahlang, marshalled the one-day innovative convention on ‘Meghalaya Farmers’ Day’, wherein 83 inquisitive farmers partook in the programme.
