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Himachal demands funds for agrarian research

By Our Staff Correspondent

SHIMLA, APRIL 5. The fund starved and agriculture dominated state of Himachal Pradesh has demanded intervention of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research in the form of enhanced funding for taking up better research, teaching and extension activities of the Agriculture Universities.

Agriculture Minister Raj Krishan Gaur has urged the ICAR to set up a university-based corpus fund so that State Universities can draw strategies to address its problems.

While talking to the ICAR officials in Almora today he said the development strategies for hill and mountain areas must reflect the understanding of constraints like their inaccessibility, fragility, marginality and diversity of these areas. Mr. Gaur said there was paucity of funds with the states for the Agriculture Universities and there was a need for fundings by the ICAR to the extent of 60 percent of their budgetary outlays.

Appreciating the role of ICAR in supporting the Krishi Vigyan Kendras, he said to overcome the geographical disadvantages there is need to establish their sub units in the remote, difficult and inaccessible areas in the hill states. He also urged the scientists to study the pros and cons of climatic change in the hill States and develop viable alternative strategy.

The Minister agreed that there is serious problem of crop damage by wild animals and there is an immediate need to develop a strategy to tackle this problem. He also requested the ICAR to develop package of practices for organic farming as hill States have comparative advantage due to their ecological situations and low use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. He said that strategy should be formulated for systematic development of grasslands and wastelands for expansion in cultivable areas. He strongly urged the ICAR to consider the setting up of separate Hill Farm Mechanisation Research Institute for these States as the farmers are still using old age primitive farm implements.

He requested the ICAR to set up a Regional Centre for cold water fish in Himachal Pradesh. He said there is a need for identification of environmental water flows in hill streams and designing of fish ladders and passes to overcome the obstacle that arises due to hydro- power projects.

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