Outreach Research Division (ORD) on behalf of Nepal Agricultural Research Council is going to publish “The Package of Practices (PoP)” of fruits and vegetables. For the same purpose, the division organized the “PoP Validation and Technology Compilation Workshop” on 1st and 2nd January, 2020 (16th and 17th Poush, 2076) at Khumaltar, Lalitpur. The workshop was inaugurated by Chief Guest, Dr. Tek Bahadur Gurung, Executive Director of NARC by felicitation with dosalla (shawl) of two entrepreneur farmers namely Dr. Kedar Budhathoki and Dr. Surya Prasad Pandey as a tribute for their contribution to development of vegetable and fruit sector respectively. The program was chaired by Dr. Deepak Bhandari, Director, Crop and Horticulture Research, NARC. Dr. Yubak Dhoj G.C, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development were the special guest of the program. In addition, Dr. Hari Bahadur K.C., Joint Secretary, MoALD, Niru Dahal Pandey, DG, DoA, Prof. Dr. Nawaraj Devkota, Director, Directorate of Research and Extenstion, AFU, Ram Bahadur K.C., Director, Fianancial Administration, NARC, Dr. Rewati Raman Poudel, Director, PMAMP, Basanti Ghimire, Member, National Farmers’ Commision, Dr. Kishor Chandra Dahal, Assistant Dean, IAAS and Indra Raj Pandey, Chairperson, Nepal Horticulture Society were the distinguished guests of the program. More than 80 agricultural experts and stakeholders representing MoALD, NARC, AFU and private sector actively participated in the workshop. Moreover, farmers’ representatives from outreach research sites of Outreach Research Division and other entrepreneur farmers also participated in the workshop.
Dr. Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Chief, ORD welcomed all the participants in the workshop. During his speech, he highlighted the objectives of the workshop and the strategies of the ORD, roadmap followed for technology packaging and the progress made so far in preparation of the PoPs of fruits and vegetables. The distinguished guests put forth their few words of best wishes for the successful completion of the workshop and publication of the PoPs.
The technical session of first day was chaired by Ram Bahadur K.C., Director, Financial Administration, NARc. Sharmila Piya, Senior Technical Officer of ORD on behalf of her team presented the draft of package of practices of fruits. Similarldy Bishwash Poudel, Technical Officer of ORD on behalf of his team presented the draft of package of practices of vegetables. After completion of the presentations, short discussion was done on each of them followed by group discussion. The experts’ comments on the draft were collected through the PoP summery sheet distributed among the participants.
The day two of the workshop comprised of the presentation and discussion on the technical papers on newly developed technologies collected from different research stations and university. A total of 17 technical papers were presented in three different session chaired by Prof. Dr. Nawaraj Devkota, Prof. Dr. Durgamani Gautam and Indraraj Pandey respectively.
The closing session was chaired by Hari Krishna Upreti, Principal Scientist, NARC. Dr. Dhruba Raj Bhattarai on behalf of the organizing team expressed the vote of thanks to all participants for their active participation, constructive suggestions and for the very innovative papers presented. Kumar Mani Dahal, Technical Officer of ORD were the master of the ceremony while Mr. Arjun Prakash Poudel, Scientist and Ms. Sharmila Piya, Sr. Technical Officer and Bishwash Poudel, Technical Officer of ORD were the rapporteur of the program.
