Central Horticultural Experiment Station (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar organized an off-campus Training-cum-demonstration programme on “scientific seed production of legume vegetable crops” on 4th January, 2020 at Balianta and Balipatna blocks of Odisha, under MIDH-SEEDs project to demonstrate the commercial seed production of dolichos bean and french bean in east coast region. The programme was attended by more than 40 farmers of Daringbadi, Balipatna and Balianta blocks of Kandhamal, Cuttack and Khordha district of Odisha, respectively.
The programme was started with visit to seed production fields of Arka Amogh (dolichos bean) , Arka Arjun (French bean) maintained by Sri Bamdev Swain & Arka Vistar variety (dolichos) maintained by Sri Surendra Sahoo. It is followed by demonstration for scientific seed production practices like rouging, maintaining isolation distance, marinating disease/insect free crops, sown during October 2019. Farmers from Kandhamal district visited the seed production fields and discussed their problems for commerical seed production. They were encouraged to see the performance of seed crops of Arka Amogh, Arka Arjun and Arka Vistar in the area. An interaction session was organized at the end of demonstration and field visit. Dr. G.C. Acharya, Head & Co-Principal Investigator of MIDH-Seeds project, explained the need for commercial vegetable seed production in Odisha and appreciated the efforts of farmers for taking seed production for larger benefit of the farming community in Odisha. Dr. P. Srinivas, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator of the project, elaborated on the importance of healthy and quality seed production of vegetable crops through scientific techniques and plant health management practices. Dr. Meenu Kumari, Scientist and Co-Principal Investigator discussed technical details like maturity indices, drying and extraction methods for seed production of legume vegetables. Importance of Arka Vegetable Special and Arka Microbial Consortium were discussed in detail and also distributed to farmers for application in the standing field crops. Besides seed production, the farmers were highly convinced on overall performances of these varieties for fresh produce also. Dr. Meenu Kumari, Scientist and Dr. P. Srinivas, Principal Scientist of CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar coordinated the programme while Dr. G.C. Acharya, Head, CHES (ICAR-IIHR) presided over the programme. Jaydev Krushak Surakhya Manch (JKSM), Balipatna extended active cooperation for local logistics and farmer mobilization.
