The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Institute (IIHR) Bangalore organized Workshop cum Capacity building programme on Improved vegetable production technologies for the tribal farmers of Salem (Karumandurai Hills) and Trichy (Pachamalai Hills) districts of Tamil Nadu under TNTSP (Ainthinai Mission) from June 27 -28, 2024. The programme was started with welcome address by Dr. V.K Jayaraghavendra Rao, Principal Scientist and Head of Division of Social Science and Training, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. Dr. R. Senthil Kumar, Principal Scientist and PI of the project narrated the objectives and importance of the training. Dr V. Sankar, Principal Scientist and CO-PI and Coordinator of the programe explained about significance of ICAR-IIHR technologies for increasing the income of the tribal farmers and vegetable technologies suitable for both districts (Salem and Trichy) of Tamil Nadu. Resource persons from various divisions viz. Dr.Madhavi Reddy, Dr.Pitchiamuthu, Dr Raja Shankar, Dr.D.Kalaivanan, Dr.G.Sangeetha, Dr.S.Bhuvawaneai, Dr.Uma Maheswari, Dr.N.Prasanna Kumar,Dr Carolin Rethinakumari and Dr V Sankar delivered lectures in different aspects of vegetable cultivation including new varieties/hybrids, inter cultivation, pest and disease management, post-harvest and processing, values addition etc. The farmers were taken to the demonstration block, Orchard, Nursery unit, seed unit, ATIC, Post Harvest lab, BESST Hort, Agricultural Machineries Workshop etc. Farmer scientist interaction meeting was held during the last day of the training programme and farmers were cleared their doubts. This programe was ended with vote of thanks by Dr.H.P. Sumangala, Principal Scientist and Co PI of the project. This programme was attended by 40 tribal farmers of Salem (Karumandurai Hills) and Trichy (Pachamalai Hills) districts of Tamil Nadu.
