It’s time for farmer fairs at Punjab Agricultural University, Gadvasu

LUDHIANA: Campuses of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Gadvasu) will come to life as farmers and experts from different parts of Punjab and other states are expected to throng Kisan Mela and Pashu Palan Mela, respectively, on Friday and Saturday.
Punjab agriculture minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal will inaugurate the event, which would be presided over by PAU VC Satbir Singh Gosal and Gadvasu VC Inderjeet Singh.
The campuses have been decked up. Various departments will put up stalls to fine tune skills and enhance agricultural knowledge of farmers through close interaction with scientists.
Extending an open invitation to the agricultural community to participate in the mela, Gosal said, “The university has worked hard to uplift the socio-economic conditions of farmers by evolving cost-effective technologies for facilitating agro-based industries and generating self-employment opportunities for the youths.”
Major highlights will include live demonstrations on PMH 14 variety of maize and SL 46 of sorghum, nursery raising techniques, kitchen garden model, newly released varieties of horticultural crops, mini herbal garden, vermicompost unit, integrated farming system unit, organic production technologies, sub-surface drip irrigation and fertigation.
Exhibitions will be organised on protected cultivation, mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, safe use of pesticides, and insect-pest and disease management in various crops.
Besides, field demonstrations will be given on processing technologies such as agro-processing complex, PAU maize dryer, turmeric processing, vegetable washing machine, onion storage structure, improved grain methods, jaggery processing, vodka production from Kufri Pukhraj, value addition of button mushroom; paddy straw management technologies like Happy Seeder, Super Straw Management System, Smart Seeder, baler and mulcher; and other machines such as lucky seed drill, drone, self-propelled rotary weeder, mechanical paddy transplanters, etc. In addition, renewable energy technologies comprising biogas generation from paddy straw, various types of biogas plants and solar cookers will be displayed.
For this year’s Pashu Palan Mela, the authorities have come up with a slogan ‘To rear livestock in a congenial manner with respect to ecology and nature’.
Gadvasu VC Inderjeet Singh said whereas cattle, buffalos, goats and different species including ornamental fish, will be the main attraction, country-side scenes of university will be a special attraction for the urban children. He said Pashu Palan Mela will be more useful to vocational courses students studying animal husbandry and rural culture as they will get more valuable information about the latest interventions in the field of animal husbandry, dairying, fisheries, etc.