A Farmer-Scientist interaction meet along with field monitoring was conducted on 5th Jan, 2026 under the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) at Dimbe and Mapoli villages of Ambegaon taluka, Pune district (Maharashtra). The program was coordinated by Dr. Amar Jeet Gupta, Principal Scientist (Hort) and Nodal Officer (TSP), ICAR-DOGR, Pune. During the interaction, Dr. Gupta highlighted the significance of the Tribal Sub Plan, a Government of India initiative aimed at channelizing development resources to scheduled tribe communities to bridge socio-economic disparities with non-tribal populations. He emphasized that under TSP, ICAR-DOGR regularly conducts capacity-building programs, field demonstrations, on-farm monitoring and distribution of quality agricultural inputs to promote onion and garlic cultivation and onion seed production, thereby enhancing livelihood opportunities for tribal farmers.

As part of the field monitoring, Dr. Gupta visited onion fields rabi 2025-26 at the transplanted stage of the improved variety Bhima Light Red grown by progressive farmers Shri Kiran Dnyaneshwar Sable and Shri Ramesh Suryakant Shelke at Dimbe village. He also inspected rabi onion fields of Shri Pandurang Mahadev Lokhare and Shri Kantaram Lumaji Lokhare at Mapoli village.

Dr. Gupta briefed the farmers on the complete rabi onion package of practices, including timely fertigation, stage-specific fertilizer application, weed and intercultural operations, management of pests and diseases and timely harvesting for achieving higher yield, superior bulb quality and improved storability. He interacted with farmers at each site, appreciated their adoption of improved onion varieties and advanced technologies developed by ICAR-DOGR, and collected valuable feedback. The farmers expressed their gratitude to ICAR-DOGR and Dr. Amar Jeet Gupta for the continuous technical guidance and material support provided under TSP and assured their continued cooperation in future programs.