Mada seminar in Hrar-Akkar on conservation agriculture

As part of the EU-funded ‘Improvement of the Living Standards of Small Farmers of Akkar’ project, Mada Association and Hrar Agricultural Center organized an extension seminar last week on conservation agriculture of apple orchards in the presence of a number of concerned farmers. Taha Mustafa, head of Hrar Center, the praised the high level of receptiveness of apple growers to similar seminars which are held by the Center adding that the latter receives many calls every day from people seeking help and information on how to tackle problems in farming. Mustafa disclosed that the total area of apple orchards is estimated at 9000 dunums and the number of farmers at 800 individual farmers. For his part, Agriculture Engineer, Nidal Meri’bi, underscored the significance of adopting new farming conservation techniques and that is for maintaining natural resources and reducing the plowing intensity in order to sustain the soil’s organic nutrients and to cut down on the cost of production. He demonstrated with the aid of examples new techniques of planting some 2 kgs of cereals and grains on a 1000 meter stretch of cultivated land by using the vegetation cover to maintain the soil’s moisture. (Al Diyar, December 9, 2015)