Port Blair, Oct 24: Interaction with Custodian Farmers of Karen Community was conducted at Karen Welfare Community hall, Webi on 20thOctober 2021, wherein a total of 22 members (15 male and 7 female) participated .
REV. Saw Saytha on behalf of Karen community briefed about the efforts taken by the CIARI in projecting Karen rice landraces at National level which has brought lot of fame to the community.
The Chief Guest, Dr. Eaknath B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI, placed on record the efforts taken by community in setting up seed gene bank for conservation of seeds with the award money. He highlighted on the importance of conservation of landraces and its cultivation and encouraged the younger generation to come forward to showcase the local cuisines by giving proper publicity to attract visiting tourist in Islands.
Dr. P. K. Singh, Principal Scientist and Head (I/c), CIARI, spoke about importance of conservation of farmer’s variety and its role in crop improvement programs. Dr. Y. Ramakrishna, Principal Scientist and Head, KVK ANI briefed on the role of KVKs in conducting need based training and demonstration programs in agriculture & allied fields. Dr. Jai Sunder, Principal Scientist, CIARI impressed on the role of goats, poultry and piggery as a vital component of rice based farming system. The exhibits displayed by Karen community were also shown to the team.
At the outset, Dr. S. K. Zamir Ahmed, Principal Scientist and In-charge, Social Science Section, ICAR-CIARI, welcomed the august gathering and briefed about the Plant Genome Saviour awarded to Karen rice varieties and its registration as Farmers variety in 2016 under Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority (PPVFRA), New Delhi which was facilitated by scientific team of ICAR-CIARI. Dr. K. Venkatesan, Scientist & Mr. Thomson Ex-Pradhan also shared their views on the occasion.
