ICAR-IIHR organized a Field Day on Banana Production Technology

KARNATAKA: ICAR-IIHR organized a field day on Banana Production Technology at I. Gollehalli village of Kanakapura taluk, Ramanagara District. Karnataka on Wednesday. The field day was organized at demonstration plot of Mr Raju, Progressive farmer of I. Gollehalli village. This programme was organized as part of the project sponsored by Department of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka to ICAR-IIHR for dissemination of ICAR-IIHR technologies to the horticultural farmers.

First of all, there was an interface at the demonstration plot between farmers and scientists, during which the benefit of ICAR-IIHR technologies, experience of demonstration farmers and the current problems faced by banana farmers etc. were discussed. Then, there was an off-campus training organized for general banana growers of the village. Dr R Venkattakumar spoke about the extension activities of ICAR-IIHR and the importance of farmers producer organizations (FPOs) in social engineering of farmers towards various stages agri supply and value chain. Mr Gopalakrishna Hegde, Project Manager, ICCOA spoke about the activities of ICCOA in mobilizing banana growers as FPOs and expected benefits. Dr H Ravisahanker delivereda talk on banana production technology, while Dr B Narayanaswamy spoke about the ICAR-IIHR technologies for enhancing the productivity of banana. Mr Siddharaju, Senior Assistant Director of Horticulture, Kanakapura and Mr Rangaramaiah, Assistant Horticultural Officer, Kanakapura spoke about the schemes of the Department for Horticulture as well as for banana. A video on Banana Production Technology along with success stories was projected for the benefit of the farmers.

The demonstration farmers of the village shared their experience and opined that they were satisfied with the results of spraying Banana Special. Many of the farmers were interested to go for Banana Special spray and requested to arrange for supply of the input. More than 40 farmers participated and benefitted by this programme.