Hundreds of farmers thronged the Organic Farming Research Station at Naganahalli (OFRSN) this morning where its day-long Centenary Celebrations are being held.  As part of the celebrations, a mega exhibition of agricultural tools and equipment was organised.

Equipment including coconut tree climbing machine, hand-held paddy sowing and transplant machine and weed removing machines were displayed. The usage of these machines was demonstrated to the farmers who had come from in and around Mysuru district.

Maintaining that the century-old research centre has now gone fully organic and the initial results were  encouraging, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bengaluru Vice-Chancellor Dr. H. Shivanna, who inaugurated the celebrations, called for wider adaptation of Integrated Organic Farming Techniques for better crop yield.

Recalling the history of the Centre, Prof. Shivanna said that the then Mysuru ruler Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar set it up on Mar. 17, 1917, in order to carry out research for developing paddy varieties and increasing crop yield and British Agriculture expert Dr. Leslie P. Coleman was its first director.

Pointing out that the centre which started functioning under the Agriculture Department, later became an affiliate of UAS, Bengaluru in 1965, Dr. Shivanna said the Research Centre was converted to organic farming in 2005, due to a major shift in the government’s perception on conventional agriculture.

Noting that the centre has been conducting extensive research on newer paddy varieties, he also complimented   the Research Centre for its extensive research on not only maintaining soil fertility but also enriching it.

Dr. G. Satish, Commissioner for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka said that apart from adapting newer farm technologies in the agriculture sector, the department was also introducing newer concepts for enhancing crop yield at viable cost.

UAS Bengaluru faculty Dr. D.P. Kumar, Dr. N.R. Gangadharappa, MLA H.P. Rajesh, Research Centre’s Senior Field Superintendent Dr. C. Govindaraju and others were present.