The Hindu : Karnataka News : Focus on farmers' problems, scientists told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 29, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Focus on farmers' problems, scientists told

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, OCT. 28. While the positive aspects of the Green Revolution had helped the country achieve food security, there were negative effects which resulted in soil degradation, groundwater pollution and increased pesticide resistant crop pests, the Union Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajashekaran, said here on Thursday.

Speaking after inaugurating a partnership programme on `Livelihood improvements in dryland farming' organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), he said that the Green Revolution had happened mostly during favourable farming conditions with the help of relatively richer farmers who had the resources. The negative aspects included chemical residues in food and rising production levels.

Rural welfare

Mr. Rajashekaran asked agricultural scientists and researchers to focus on specific problem areas such as rain-fed farming and small and marginal farmers. The agricultural scientists should work keeping in mind the Common Minimum Programme of the Union Government which gave top priority to rural welfare programmes, he said. The recent National Sample Survey estimated that 320 million of the country's people still remained poor and most of them lived in rural areas, he said. Thus, rural development and improving the rural economy became very important to the country. "Development of rural areas need not amount to gifting welfare packages by outsiders to village communities. It must be the outcome of efforts by the rural people themselves, with the assistance of outsiders wherever necessary," he said. Participatory methods were always more effective as local people could better understand their own problems, needs, views and preferences, and would be willing to make efforts to overcome constraints.

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