Two Six-day training programs were organized by Punjab Agricultural & Management Training Institute (PAMETI) in association with Department of Microbiology & Department of Soil & Water Engineering under the Skill training for Rural Youth (STRY) Scheme from 26th November – 1stDecember 2018. Each training program was attended by 15 Progressive Farmers. Dr H S Dhaliwal, Director, PAMETI welcomed participants and informed them about the role of PAMETI in conducting the trainings for the benefit of the farming fraternity. He necessitated the role of such trainings in training and preparing the youth to take up modern, better paying and non-wheat-rice based farming.
In training on mushroom production, Dr H S Sodhi informed the participants about the status of mushroom production in the state and also presented the data on economics of its cultivation.
Participants were given hands on training starting from the preparation of compost using the short method along with spawning, casing and its harvesting. The participants were explained the technicalities involved in the cultivation of different varieties of mushroom such as oyster, milky, paddy and shiitake mushroom. These technicalities were practically explained to the farmer by taking them to the mushroom farms.
Dr Harmeet Kaur, Deputy Director-BM, PAMETI elucidated the concepts of marketing of mushroom and urged the farmers to venture into agri-entrepreneurship to create a sizeable venture in the interest of the farming community. Dr Poonam Sachdeva, Head, Department of Food Science, PAU explained the concept of mushroom processing to the farmers by conducting a live demo in the food science lab. The resource person from Department of Entomology informed the participants about the pest management in mushroom cultivation.
Mr Lakhwinder Singh Brar, Deputy Director-marketing, PAMETI thanked the participants for attending the training program and motivated the trainees to take up the mushroom farming as a ready source of income and as a means of crop diversification. In the training for Installation & Maintenance of Microirrigation System, Resource persons from department of soil & water Engineering, discussed the various issues in installation of microirrigation. Hands on training was conducted by the experts from the department so that farmers could themselves design and install low cost drip irrigation system in their fields. The training was co-ordinated by Mr. Ravneet Singh, Deputy Director-PHT, PAMETI.
The farmers were enthusiastic about the training and were upbeat about such trainings which would help to further their understanding in such type of specialized farming.
Source: http://www.pau.edu/
