Prakash M. Salimath, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (UAS-R), today said that his University was always ready to help farmers in all possible ways.
Speaking at the Monsoon Seed Festival, organised by the Seed Unit of UAS-R, he told the farmers to maintain a live contact with the agricultural scientists in the University and get their problems solved. “We are for you. The doors of our university are always open for you. You can contact me or any other scientist for whatever technical help you need. You can solve your problems and clear your doubts with the help of experts,” he said.
Scientific farming
Mr. Salimath stressed on the need for undertaking scientific farming for getting maximum benefits with minimum investment and limited resources. He advised the farmers to first understand the soil health, weather conditions, rainfall and water availability and other important factors and accordingly decide crop pattern and cultivation methods.
“We must stop acting blindly. We should test the soil and know what nutrients are poor or absent and then provide them through fertilizers. There is no use of blindly giving additional nutrients that are already abundant in the soil. It would rather increase the cost of cultivation,” he said.
Seed production
Earlier, Basave Gowda, Special Officer of Seed Unit, said that the Seed Festival at the beginning of kharif and rabi seasons was an unique programme being organised by UAS-R for imparting knowledge to farmers about the varieties of seeds available and scientific farming. He said that the UAS-R had thus far produced 2 lakh quintal of seeds since the inception of the University in 2010.
“The concept of seed festival was introduced by UAS-R and later followed by other Universities in the country. The purpose is not just about selling quality seeds to farmers, but imparting scientific and technical knowledge to farmers on various factors including newer varieties of seeds coming to the open market and deciding cropping pattern based on soil, weather and water conditions. We are happy that the festival is attracting more farmers every year,” he said.
He called upon the youth to come forward for taking up seed production by making use of seed processing units and technical knowledge of the University. “We will provide you technical knowledge and proper training on seed production. It will help you economically and help the farmers at large as they get quality seeds,” he said.
