Karnataka - Gulbarga   

‘Adopt modern farming techniques’

GULBARGA: Gulbarga University Vice-Chancellor B.G. Mulimani said on Saturday that the country would face the threat of famine if no immediate remedial action was taken to increase farm production through modern farming and water management techniques.

He was speaking after inaugurating a nine-day workshop on “Specialised Training to Activate Regional Teams (START-IV)” organised by the Swiss-based funding agency for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country at the Ambedkar Hall on the campus of the university.

Quoting from the findings of agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, Prof. Mulimani said that by 2020, the country’s food production was expected to double, but nothing had been done in this regard.

Foodgrains production in the country had remained stagnant for the past few years.

He said cultivable land and water resources were fast shrinking and the number of families involved in agriculture was coming down sharply. The number of such families, which was 70 per cent in the 1980s, would be around 60 per cent by 2012, according to a study. The only hope for increasing the production of foodgrains was adoption of new technologies.

Prof. Mulimani said from 1966 to 1968, the country faced a shortage of foodgrains, forcing the Government to revise its policies on agriculture.

This resulted in the increased investment in agriculture and helped in achieving self-sufficiency in foodgrains production through Green Revolution. The major reason for the success of the Green Revolution was the increased investment in agriculture and the interest evinced by farmers to improve foodgrains production.

He said on the contrary, now farmers were losing interest in agriculture. The Government should instil confidence among farmers to continue agriculture and increase foodgrains production.

Prof. Mulimani said that it was time for the second Green Revolution with increased allocation for agriculture and research by the Government and pointed out that other activities could wait, but not agriculture.

Registrar Pratap Singh Tiwari said the university was open to non-governmental organisations for cooperation in various fields. He appealed to the organisers to submit a report to the university on the outcome of the workshop.

In his presidential remarks, chief of the HEKS in India C.G. Siluvai said HEKS had been operating in India for the past 50 years and in Karnataka it had been helping NGOs to improve the living condition of the poor and Dalits in rural areas for the past 24 years.

Mr. Siluvai said HEKS, which was offering a certificate course in Ambedkar Studies in collaboration with Madurai Kamaraj University, was ready to cooperate with the Gulbarga University in taking up joint training activities.

Director of Vidya Liberation Through Cultural Action G.N. Rajashekar Naidu welcomed the gathering.

Nearly 250 delegates from Bangalore, Bijapur, Bidar and Gulbarga are participating in the workshop.

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