Agriculture department undertakes study tour to Sikkim

Dimapur, May 7 (EMN): With an object to study the cultivation of buckwheat and other good agricultural practices (GAP), a team of officials from Agriculture department led by Dr. I Amenla, joint director of ATMA, visited Sikkim from April 19 to the 25^th.

During the study-cum-exposure tour, the team visited a farmer’s field at Pepthang, Lingmoo under Lingmoo-Payong Gram Panjayat Unit (GPU) where they were briefed by the field functionaries under the Agriculture department and ATMA (South) about the various agricultural practices including animal husbandry like cattle rearing, backyard poultry, and goatery, a DIPR report stated.

The team also visited the buckwheat field of Bijay Kumar Subba, a progressive farmer of South Sikkim, who shared his knowledge and experiences on buckwheat cultivation. The visiting officials interacted and queried on the various aspects of buckwheat like cultivation techniques, post-harvest processing, value addition, marketing avenues etc.

The team also made a courtesy call to Krishi Bhawan at Tadong, where they interacted with the director of SAMETI, Sikkim, and senior officials of the Agriculture department. During the interaction, the team was briefed about the role of SAMETI and ATMA Sikkim towards the uplift of the farmer’s income and other flagship programmes under the Agriculture department.

Besides, the team visited a farm school on Integrated Organic Farming System (IFS) at Tshalamthang, Benphegu GPU, where the farm school teacher, Ruphan Lepcha, shared his experiences in the integrated farming practices and credited ATMA Sikkim for playing a pivotal role for the uplift of his economic condition. The farm school has been adopted by Ganga Prasad, Governor of Sikkim.

Meanwhile, Dr. I Amenla has thanked the officials and farmers of Sikkim for making the exposure tour a success.