16 villages in Bhagalpur to adopt smart agricultural practices

BHAGALPUR: In order to tackle the ill-effects of climatic changes, Bhagalpur district agriculture department has decided to initiate ‘smart agricultural practices’ as pilot project in 16 villages of the district. Eight of the villages are in Sultanganj block while remaining eight are in Kahalgaon block.
Christened as ‘Climate Smart Village Project’ (CSVP), the agriculture practices will be adopted on the basis of analysis of ‘climate risk profile’ (CRP) of the area in order to save the crops and other agriculture produce from adverse climatic variations and its ill-effects on not only the agricultural yield but also on socio-economic condition of the region.
Agriculture department sources said agriculture scientists and experts would monitor the CSVP, which will take into consideration weather conditions and forecast, environmental pollution, tolerant (drought and waterlogged soil) variety of crop besides soil and water conservation, rise in temperature and other factors before embarking on cultivation, so that the vagaries of nature have minimal effect.
The sources said nearly 100 farmers from each of the selected village would be imparted training in how to adopt ‘smart agricultural practices’.
Weather scientist at Bihar Agriculture University, Dr Birendra Kumar said variation in temperature and climatic changes affect agriculture production. “One degree of variation in climatic temperature can result in changing the agriculture pattern and fall in yields. We have to adjust to the farming pattern accordingly to optimize the yield and reduce the cost with the help of scientific knowledge,” he said.
District agriculture officer (DAO) Sanjay Kumar said capacity building programme for 100 farmers from each of the selected 16 villages will be undertaken initially with the help of agriculture scientists and experts. “It is likely that we will be able to start agricultural practices in accordance with the CSVP in this Rabi season (October-March), the DAO said.