A one-day training program on 'Crop residue management' was recently held at the ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) in Nagpur, in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature, India (WWF India). It was attended by farmers and field employees from the Chhindwara and Nagpur districts, which are collaborating with WWF India on organic cotton cultivation.
The training's major goal was to show how to manage crop residue to increase soil organic carbon content and improve soil health and fertility.
Dr. YG Prasad, director of ICAR-CICR, advised the master trainees to spread the knowledge gained from the training to 6,000 farmers in their areas who practice organic farming.
Dr. Blaise Desouza (ICARCICR's head of crop production section) gave a talk titled "Restoring soil health - best management practices." Crop rotation, intercropping, live mulching, newspaper mulching, and soil test-based fertilizer recommendations were all encouraged, and farmers were encouraged to conduct soil sample testing before sowing.
Dr. A Manikandan (soil scientist) made a speech on "Recycling of crop wastes and their benefits - on-farm."
A practical demonstration was held, which included vermicomposting, vermiwash, and biochar manufacturing. During the training, the method of preparation, the materials necessary for small and large-scale preparation, their application methods, and the economics of each method were all presented in detail.
Dr. Savitha Santosh (agri microbiology scientist) gave a talk on 'Improving crop residue quality.'
Rachna Deshmukh (technical officer, soil science) gave a field demonstration of a cotton stalk shredder and mulching on a farm, while Chandrashekar Mundafale demonstrated the soil sample method (technician, soil science).
Dr. Prateeksha Mehra (WWF India's senior project officer) gave an outline of the organization's work. She also discussed the regenerative agriculture (RA) pilot project in the cotton-growing region of Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district.
The students were given a training participation certificate and a training content information brochure at the end of the training. The training program was coordinated by Dr. A Manikandan and Dr. Savitha Santosh.
