Dimapur, Sep. 24 (EMN): The State Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute (Sameti) inaugurated a three-day training programme in risk management in agriculture marketing and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), on September 24 at the institution. The training will be conducted till the 26th, a press release from the institution on September 24 stated.
Chairperson of the programme Dr. I Amenla, joint director of Agriculture, gave the opening remarks, the updates stated. She said that the current focus of the agriculture sector was marketing. The task ahead is to encourage farmers to become entrepreneurs to mitigate the challenges of marketing their produce, the press release stated.
Dr. Akali Sema of the department of Horticulture at School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development (SASRD) spoke about the important tools for managing risks in the agriculture sector “as growers are majorly faced with uncertainty about commodity prices and unpredictable climatic conditions.”
Sema said that factors such as government influences and lack of control over prices further add to the risk factor, which affects the agricultural input and output drastically. She gave a list of important tools for managing risk in agriculture marketing such as strategic buying and selling, crop insurance, government schemes, contract farming, input-output risk management and auctioning, the updates stated.
“The keynote speaker was hopeful that the participants would be open-minded and enthusiastic to learn during the course of the training programme so that the benefits would filter down to the grassroots level,” the press release stated.
The resource persons for the training programme are Dr. Amod Sharma, associate professor of the department of Agricultural Economics, SASRD; Dr. I Amenla, joint director of agriculture, and Nitish Dey, assistant manager at The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., Dimapur, the organisers informed.
