Karnataka - Bijapur   

`Protect bio-diversity to ensure food security'

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIJAPUR, OCT. 17. Protecting bio-diversity isessential to ensure food security and maintain the ecological balance. This was the message conveyed at the World Food Day function organised at Hitnalli near here on Saturday.

The Assistant Conservator of Forests, Kollegal Forest Range, Vijaykumar Gogi, said that abuse of nature in the name of development would prove disastrous.

Forest cover could arrest soil erosion. Less greenery meant more soil erosion. As a result, dams would be filled with silt sooner than expected, which would have a negative impact on irrigation and power generation. Trees were the natural manufacturers of manure and protectors of bio-diversity. Return to organic farming was the only way out, he added.

The Chief Executive Officer of Bagalkot Zilla Panchayat, V. Ponnuraj, said that though India had achieved self-reliance on the food front, the policy makers in the 1960s and 1970s did not give much importance to cropping pattern, as result of which production of a few foodgrains such as rice and wheat exceeded the demand. He also said that the dry land cultivation had not got its due in research.

Siddu S. Madiwalar, local coordinator of the AME Foundation, said apart from promoting eco-friendly agriculture, the foundation was also trying to take advanced agricultural techniques to the field.

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`Protect bio-diversity to ensure food security'

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