An estimated 400 farmers attended the annual farmers’ day, the 10th edition of an event that Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE) has held consistently since 2005.

This time the event was held at Patna, Bihar but earlier venues included Madurai, Tanjore, Alwarkuruchi and Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu, Hosur and Doddaballapur in Karnataka, Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, Ongole in Andhra Pradhesh and Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

This event provides a platform for farmers to interact with well-known agricultural scientists from leading universities and agri-research institutes who provide farmers with information on the best practices in cultivation, irrigation, soil preparation, seed technologies and farm mechanisation.

Scientists from TAFE’s JFarm – its agriculture research centre – also play a significant role in organising and conducting the farmers’ day event. Among the top scientists attending were N K Singh, chief scientist - rice,  Dr Janardan Prasad, chief scientist - soil science, Dr Mritunjay Kumar, chief scientist - maize and Dr Devendra Singh, chief scientist pulses from the Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Dr Vishal Nath, director, National Research Centre for Litchi (ICAR), Muzaffarpur and Dr JJ Gupta, principal scientist - Animal Nutrition, Indian Council of Agricultural Research - research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna.

At the event, TAFE also distributed litchi saplings to farmers attending the event. These saplings were developed at ICAR unit, NRCL. TAFE also honoured six farmers from Bihar for excellence in farming. All of them shared with the gathering their knowledge and offered ideas aimed at increasing yield and productivity.