Farm Advisory Service Centre, Gurdaspur in collaboration with Department of Plant Pathology PAU, Ludhiana and KVK, Gurdaspur organized a Farmer-Scientist interaction on “Management of potato diseases” at village Akarpura of district Gurdaspur on 10.12.24 for creating awareness among farmers on the efficient management of important diseases of potato crop. A total of 155 farmers participated in this programme.

Dr Gurjinderpal Singh Sodhi, Additional Director of Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana was the chief guest and presided over the function. Dr Prabhjot Singh Sandhu, Head, Dept. of Plant Pathology, PAU, Ludhiana also graced the occasion.

At the outset, Dr Narinderdeep Singh, Senior Extension Scientist, FASC Gurdaspur extended a warm welcome to various officers from PAU Ludhiana, scientists from KVK, Gurdaspur and the farmers present on this occasion. He also explained the role of record keeping in agriculture.

Sh Rajinder Singh Bal, DES (SM), FASC, Gurdaspur emphasized the importance of the programme and urged the farmers to actively participate for the success of the interaction. He also discussed about the techniques for efficient spraying of pesticides.

Dr Amarjit Singh, Principal Extension Scientist, Dept. of Plant Pathology, PAU, Ludhiana discussed about the management of potato diseases like late blight, scab, black scurf, viruses. He gave a very detail view of symptoms and disease cycle of late blight of potato. He also elaborated the use of Decision support system available on PAU-website for management of late blight disease in potato. He also discussed the role of weather in the development of plant diseases and advised the farmers to maximize the use of weather forecasts for carrying out various farm operations.

Dr Prabhjot Singh Sandhu, Head, Dept. of Plant Pathology, PAU, Ludhiana gave his valuable tips for management of diseases in wheat and oilseed crops. He shared very detailed information about the identification of diseases especially yellow rust in wheat and stem rot in rapeseed mustard. He also advised the farmers to regularly monitor their fields for timely identification of yellow rust. He further motivated the farmers about the judicious and timely use of recommended fungicide. He stressed upon use of bio-control agents for the control of various diseases.

Dr Ankush Proch, Asstt Professor (Animal Science), KVK Gurdaspur shared information about the management of various diseases of dairy animals. He also stressed upon the need to maximize the use of mineral mixture, by-pass fat etc. for maintaining proper animal health. Dr Anil Khokhar, Asstt. Professor (Agronomy), KVK Gurdaspur discussed about the management of weeds and nutrient deficiencies in different crops. He advised the farmers to spray only recommended herbicides at proper time.

Dr Sarabjit Singh Aulakh, Associate Director, KVK, Gurdaspur discussed about the damage symptoms and management practices for efficient control of insect-pests in Rabi crops. He emphasized that farmers should not panic about the attack of pink stem borer in wheat as the incidence of this pest is almost neglible. Wheat field should be irrigated during daytime so that the birds eat the larvae of pink stem borer. He also guided the farmers to attend various vocational training programmes being conducted at KVK, Gurdaspur.

On this occasion, Dr Gurjinderpal Singh Sodhi, Additional Director of Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana urged the farmers to take maximum advantage of such programmes. He advised the farmers that they should not burn the crop residue and instead they should manage it through various available techniques. He further urged the farmers to efficiently use the irrigation water, fertilisers etc. to conserve natural resources. He also informed the farmers to follow the recommendations of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana for making the agriculture more beneficial. Farmers should adopt subsidiary occupations like beekeeping, mushroom cultivation etc for increasing farm income. He also advised the farmers to connect with PAU through various social media platforms like facebook, instagram, you tube, twitter, kisan app etc.

At last, Sh Jatinder Singh a progressive farmer, motivated the farmers to discuss various issues faced by them. There was a very interactive session among the farmers and scientists. Major queries raised by the farmers included poor weed control in wheat, yellowing of wheat, stem rot in mustard & berseem, poor quality pesticides being sold in market, elongation of potato plants, fruit fly in guava, rotting of chilli plants. In the end, he also thanked all the officers, experts and the farmers for participation in the awareness programme.