Nahan: In view of the nationwide lockdown and curfew imposed due to coronavirus, the District Administration Sirmaur has launched another unique initiative under which the city residents are being encouraged to utilize their time to grow vegetables by adopting organic farming near their homes.
The Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry have put up a special stall at the historic Chaugan Maidan of Nahan where ‘seed kits’ of various vegetables are being provided to people by the volunteers of Aravalli Organization along with vermicompost and cowdung logs.
Under this initiative of District Administration, more than 1200 seed kits have so far been made available to people. This seed kit contains seeds of six types of vegetables such as ladyfinger, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, maize, french bean and sponge gourd.
A kit of vegetable seeds worth Rs. 25 is available at this special stall for just Rs. 10.
Apart from this, people are also being informed about the method of making vermicompost from the waste coming out of the houses and cultivation methods by utilizing empty plastic bottles, pots, buckets and empty bags.
Vermicompost and cowdung logs are also being provided by the Animal Husbandry Department at this stall. People can do organic farming by using vermicompost prepared in their homes besides they can also get rid of flies and mosquitoes during the rainy season by burning cowdung logs.
In order to ensure that the farmers do not face any difficulty during the lockdown, the District Administration had started a Kisan Helpline in which the numbers of senior officials of the Agriculture Department of the district have been given so that the farmers can communicate directly with them for solution of their problems.
Under this helpline, more than 2000 calls have so far been received regarding different problems being faced by farmers, which have been resolved by the officials of the department.
Farmers face different types of problems in agricultural production such as adverse weather for crops, destructive pest attacks, plant disease infection, immunity degradation, soil eroding fertile power, quality irrigation, lack of water and changing market environment for which the District Administration has started this Kisan Helpline so that agricultural productivity of farmers crop can be increased and they get right information and advice related to agriculture.
The Kisan Helpline has contact number of senior officials of Agriculture Department including Dr. Rajesh Kaushik, Deputy Director Agriculture District Sirmaur Mobile No. 94184-76092 and Telephone No. 01702-222225. Farmers can contact on the helpline numbers between 11 am to 1 PM from Monday to Saturday to get right information and advice related to agriculture.
