SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 21: A group of tribal farmers from the remote Nalhatta village of Nala block under the Jamtara district today took tips on farming and animal husbandry from the faculty members of IIT Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad for improving their livelihood.
The interaction programme of tribal farmers with the IIT ISM Department of Management Studies and Industrial Engineering team was organized at the Nalhatta village of Jamtara, around 104 km away from IIT ISM under the Department of Science and Technology sponsored project of ‘Improving the economic wellbeing of Scheduled Tribe communities’.
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The IIT (ISM) team led by Prof Rashmi Singh along with Niladri Das, Associate Professor of the Department of Management Studies (the co-principal investigator of the project) apprised the farmers about the government schemes meant for them, like PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojna (PMAGY).
The farmers’ group led by Ajit Murmu, the Mukhiya of Nalhatta village, apprised the visiting team of IIT (ISM) about lesser rainfall and scarcity of irrigation facilities.
“The village spread over 94 hectares of area has around 60.36 hectares of unirrigated area. The main crops farmers grow in the village are paddy, wheat, potato, tomato, brinjal,” said Prof Singh.
She added that a large number of villagers work as part-time labourers to support the family income due to lesser income from farming. “We apprised them about the ways of diversification to increase their income and to emerge as farm-based entrepreneurs,” said Prof Singh who is also the Principal Investigator of the project.
The experts of BAU had already tipped the farmers of Gopalpur village of Jamtara on November 17 during a special session as part of the IIT (ISM) project.
Ajit Murmu, Mukhiya of the village said that they came to know about the IIT (ISM) faculty members supporting the farmers. They invited them to the village which faces low agricultural output due to scarce rainfall and lack of irrigation facilities.
Shyamlal Soren, a farmer who participated in the meeting with the IIT (ISM) team, said, “We came to know about the various other activities associated with agriculture during interaction which can help us to emerge as entrepreneurs like bamboo crafts making”.
