Input dealers visit agricultural research station in Tirupati

The tour is part of a one-year diploma course for sellers

Input dealers from Madanapalle at the Regional Agricultural Research Station in Tirupati on Thursday.

Pesticide and fertiliser sellers, commonly known as agricultural input dealers, made a visit to study the demonstration crops at ANGRAU’s Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) here on Thursday.

The visit was a part of the one-year diploma course that was introduced in an effort to enhance the sellers’ domain knowledge on the products and services they deal with.

Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Chittoor, brought 40 dealers from the Madanapalle region for an interaction with the scientists.

C. Ramana, principal scientist on farm mechanisation, showed the various tools used in farming and explained how automation could take farming to a different level.

His colleague S. Kaleemulla explained the void in outreach due to absence of millet processing units.

Similarly, scientist Bala Hussain Reddy explained the funding available to entrepreneurs through the Agri Business Incubator.

The dealers also visited the soil testing lab, studied the precautions to be taken in groundnut crop, preparation and use of bio-manure and bio-pesticides.