A one-day training on organic farming was carried out on Wednesday at Ramrei Village, Kamjong district, attended by 25 promising organic farmers of six villages such as Chadong, Ramrei, Riha, Thoyee, S. Laho and Ngarumphung.
The training programme was organised under the Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture (ISA), a non-profit making registered society based in Kamjong district and supported by Centre for Social Development (CSD) Imphal.
Senior project manager of Centre for Social Development (CSD) Babycha Mangsatabam, Jiten Yumnam, secretary, Center for Research & Advocacy, Manipur (CRAM) and Amana L Meghachandra, Trainer of Bokashi and Vermi Compost were the main speakers in the orientation as well as training.
During the orientation session of the programme, Jajo Themson, president of the ISA expressed serious concern that finding sustainability in every respect is compelling for this generation. The ISA organisation has been taking little initiative for achieving sustainable agriculture making it and confederated activities a viable approach to the environment by restoring soil health, human health concern, replenishing nature, improving ecological balance, promoting traditional knowledge and enhancing livelihood whereby attempts are made to avoid extensive chemical inputs in agriculture.
He further stated that among the various means, organic farming is one of the ultimate answers to sustainable agriculture in resilience to climate change.
As the orientation session proceeds, Babycha Mangsatabam exhorted that organic farming is a must for good health as well as long life. She further emphasised on the inevitability to resort to organic farming also in the interest of promoting traditional knowledge of agriculture which is friendly with nature.
Jiten Yumnam stated the need of organic farming as a key to healthy human beings, augment the environment and resilience to climate change. Organic farming is very much required for safe food production, improving livelihood and environment. He also stressed on the traditional way of cultivation and importance of natural manure as well as use of seeds of natively grown.
Amana L Meghachandra also expressed serious concern on organic farming and inevitability of using bio-fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture in the interest of eco-friendly and human health free from chemical elements. He further expressed that so many cases of child defective birth are very common in Manipur today which are the result of chemical elements in food. Finally, he stated that to change towards organic, willingness of the people is the prime factor.
This was followed by demonstrative training on making of bio-fertilizers such as Bokashi and Vermicompost models. Moreover, basic knowledge of insect or pest repellent from the farm using bio-matters are imparted in-stead of chemical pesticides that kill uncountable living organisms which usually augment the issues of ecological balance.
