SRINAGAR: One week national training programme organized by Division of Agronomy on “Weather Based Decision Support System for Crop Risk Management” concluded at Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura, SKUAST-Kashmir on Friday. The training programme was inaugurated on 27th September, 2021 by the Prof. A. H. Hakeem Dean Faculty of Agriculture. Around more than 50 PG students had registered for this training programme. The invited guests to the programme include Dr. M.L. Khicher, Prof. & Head Agrometeorlogy, HAU, Hisar, Dr. Prakash Kumar & Dr. Mohd Yasin, Scientists, Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi. Guest speakers from different corners of country delivered their talks on various thematic aspects of the training programme to address the issues of climate risks and find out ways and means for its management through agro-meteorological approaches to minimize climate related disasters.
The valedictory session was chaired by Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Director Planning & Monitoring, Principal Investigator National Agriculture Higher Education Project (NAHEP), SKUAST-K. He congratulated Division of Agronomy for organizing the training of national standard, which was well timed and much needed under the changing scenario and increased frequency of climate risks. He also impressed upon large-scale climate awareness as climate change has become a reality. In his address, he also stressed upon faculty and students in encouraging creativity, skills and innovations. Prof. F. A. Zaki, Former Dean Faculty of Horticulture laid thrust on the need of more such trainings to serve the farming community. He also emphasized that scientists and students must engage themselves in crafting innovative research project ideas and to share these ideas on platform for subsequent start-up grant under ICAR-NAHEP.
The guests and participants were formally welcomed by Prof. M. Anwar Bhat, Head Division of Agronomy and Course Coordinator of the training programme. Dr. Raihana H. Kanth, Course Director presented the overview of the training programme and deliberated on various training sessions held during the programme. During the event, besides the distribution of certificates among the participants, training manual comprising of 13 chapters from invited eminent speakers of national repute was also released. The event ended with a formal vote of thanks by Dr. S. Sheraz Mahdi, Course Co-Coordinator.

KR Desk