The Hindu : `Exploit indigenous resources'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

`Exploit indigenous resources'

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, JAN. 17. Rural people should use locally available resources in order to boost development at the village level, instead of depending on resources available elsewhere, said the environmentalist, Anil P. Joshi, from the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), here recently.

Delivering a special address at a function organised by the Bio Sciences Association of the Dr. G. R. Damodaran College of Science, Dr. Joshi observed that farmers should cultivate local cereals and give up the practice of growing water-intensive crops such as rice and paddy.

Crops that were indigenous to a particular region often contained the highest percentage of nutrients compared to food grain brought from other places. For example, the buckwheat crop that grew well in high altitudes was very beneficial for people living in the area because of its high nutritional status. Similar was the case with ragi in the southern parts of the country.

The best form of development would come from adding value to locally available crop resources. For example, biscuits and cookies could be made from ragi, millets, bajra and jowar that grew well in a particular area, rather than wheat that had to be procured from elsewhere.

He explained how HESCO, a voluntary social organisation, had been able to empower the people living in mountainous areas by analysing the problems they faced, promoting participatory research activities, developing suitable technology for practical use, and ultimately generating employment at the village level.

Dr. Joshi said that the group had motivated village people to form associations and successfully run fruit processing units, cultivate mushrooms, take up bee keeping, extract fibre and manufacture bamboo articles.

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