11 December 2020, Punjab, IN: The three days training programme on Addressing Climate and Disaster Stresses in Agriculture: S&T Innovations and Extension”, organized jointly by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi concluded here at PAU. More than 500 scientists, extension workers and students from various parts of the country participated in the event that was coordinated by Dr Kulwinder Kaur Gill (Scientist, Agromet.) and Dr Sandeep Singh Sandhu, Sr. Agronomist, Deptt. of Climate Change & Agril. Meteorology, PAU, Ludhiana.
Chief Guest of the Day and PAU Director of Extension, Dr Jaskarn Singh Mahal in his presidential remarks discussed climate smart technologies like the happy seeder, super seeder and super SMS developed by the university for promoting conservation agriculture, while stressing the need to promote them for adoption at the grassroot level. Terming the programme as ‘dire need of the hour’, in the present scenario of rapidly changing climate and its adverse impact on agriculture, Guest of Honour, Dr Anil Kumar Gupta, Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management appreciated the efforts of the university scientists for being front runners in raising awareness on climate as an agriculture stressor and strategies to mitigate the same. He also congratulated PAU for being declared as the Best Agricultural University in the latest ICAR ranking.
The special dignitaries, Ms Fatima Amin, NIDM, New Delhi and Dr K.S. Thind, Dean College of Agriculture, PAU, expressed delight at the impressive response to the workshop, which they said is proof of the level of sensitization and inspiration to turn around the ill effects of climate change on farming. The three technical sessions of the programme ranged from discussions on mapping and managing climatic risks in agriculture using geospatial technologies, introduction to disaster resilience wrt agricultural and food security, application of GIS and remote sensing in agriculture, depletion of ground water table in Punjab, Climate extreme events, role of crop modeling, managing micro crop environment, weed management, to effect of weather stresses on crop productivity, impact of climate change on agriculture, role of weather forecasting in agriculture, climate smart agricultural practices and correlation and regression analysis using R software.
The speakers included senior scientists from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi, SKUAST Jammu, Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute (RARI) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. Earlier, Dr Tejinder Singh Riar, Additional Director, Communication welcomed the participants and outlined the details for the online training programme. The valedictory programme was conducted at the end of Technical Session-III on 11.12.2020. In which Dr K S Thind graced the occasion as Chief Guest. The programme was conducted by Dr K K Gill and the event concluded with a formal vote of thanks by Dr S S Sandhu.
