Manipur to host International Conference on Natural Farming from March 17

Imphal, March 16: The Central Agricultural University (CAU) Imphal is all set to organise a 3-day International Conference on “Natural Farming and for Revitalizing Environment and Resilient Agriculture” at its picturesque Iroisemba foothill premises in the outskirts of Imphal from March 17-19.

Announcing this during a press conference in Imphal on Wednesday, Dean (College of agriculture) Dr Indira Sarangthem of CAU Imphal said that the objective of holding this conference is to focus more on how to sustain agricultural practices without disturbing the eco-systems and also we can extract some innovative ideas which we can suggest to the policy makers for a sustainable farming.

During the three day conference 25 lead papers will be presented by scientists of agriculture and allied discipline out of which eight papers will be presented by scientists of eight foreign countries such as Thailand, Bangladesh, Germany, Russia and USA.

Besides 135 research papers in different technical sessions will be presented by 135 scientists and research scholars. Each session will also have a poster presentation on the theme concerned and altogether 198 posters are expected to be displayed.

“We hope that this conference will provide important guidelines to shape the policy on natural farming in India and abroad,” Dr Indira said.

Participating in the press meet, Dr SM Haldhar of department of entomology said the future agricultural production will depend upon managing the risks to land and water. Stating that farming is purported to be unique solution of farm practice which envisages ecological or regenerative agriculture approaches under which applying any kind of chemicals to soil bio-systems is prohibited.

He added the Vice Chancellors AK Singh(RLB Central agricultural university Jhanshi-UP), PS Pandey(RPA university PUSA),Dr BR Kamboj (CCS Haryana agricultural university-Hisar)and Former DDG (Animal science)ICAR Dr P Das will also attend the conference.

The upcoming conference will have eight technical sessions as Natural farming and socio-economic transformation of rural households in wetland ecosystems, food system diversity including the transition pathways to sustainable food systems in different ecosystem, integration of trans-disciplinary science and local knowledge for transformation of food systems in various ecosystems, role of traditional environmental management with ecosystem resilience against vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses, incorporating ecological principles as an operational framework for transitioning to sustainable agriculture in diverse agro ecosystems, Nature of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation as the recurrent problems in major farming systems, ecosystem valuation and policy intervention at government level and role of livestock in natural resources management