The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Encourage farmers to blend technology and ecology’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Encourage farmers to blend technology and ecology’

Staff Correspondent

Protecting the interests of farmers is the need of the hour: Swaminathan

‘Present fertilizer crisis is due to bad management by the authorities concerned’
Swaminathan advocates five-point plan to address farmers’ problems

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Call to help farmers: M.S. Swaminathan speaking at a function in Suttur in Mysore district on Tuesday.

SUTTUR (MYSORE DISTRICT): Underlining the need to protect the farming community which is facing several problems in the changed economic scenario, the former Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers and agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan said it is necessary for the planning authorities to protect the interests of the farming community by encouraging them to blend technology and ecology in the right manner. Speaking after inaugurating seed processing units under Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) Scheme here at a function organised by JSS Mahavidyapeetha on Tuesday, Prof. Swaminathan said that protecting the interests of the farming community was the need of the hour in view of the global food and fuel crisis. “It is a wake-up call to those concerned, to protect national security as well as farmers’ interest as it is the farmers who have saved the country from a food crisis for generations and the public distribution system is dependent on them,” he said.

Regretting the present fertilizer crisis in various parts of the country, especially in the State, he said that the crisis was due to “bad management” by the authorities concerned and the crisis was man-made. Prof. Swaminathan said that fertilizers had to be used judiciously as the soil needed nutrition. There was no harm in practicing organic and natural farming in view of the change in the situation. Stressing the need to conserve local genes, seeds, grain and water, Prof. Swaminathan said that conserving local genes and local seeds was necessary as it would be useful in case of consistent drought. Forming genes, grains and seeds bank at the panchayat level was necessary at this juncture, he added.

Underlining the need for judicious use of water, he said a water bank had to be formed at the panchayat level to assure equitable distribution of water. It was imperative to decentralise seed production to help the local community and make them self-sustainable, he said.

Prof. Swaminathan called upon the planning authorities to make the benefits of information and technology available to the rural poor with a view to improve agricultural production.

“Information and technology can be employed successfully to help farmers by informing them on issues related to cultivation. They can be educated on the right seeds, right quantity of fertilizer to be used, judicious use of water and about the timing of rainfall,” he said.

Educating farmers on making use of post-harvest technology was necessary and it was the responsibility of agricultural universities to educate farmers about their findings, Prof. Swaminathan added.

He called upon MPs to make use of the funds made available to them under MPLAD to uplifting the farming community in their respective regions. “Opting for ‘Evergreen Revolution’, as an extended version of the ‘Green Revolution’ which helped the country tide over the food crisis in the 1960s is the only panacea for the present crisis.

Small farmers can achieve success by adopting modern technology, but without harming ecology,” he said.

Prof. Swaminathan advocated a five-point plan to address the problems of the farming community in the country. He said that planning authorities should concentrate on educating farmers on maintaining the health of soil, judicious and equitable use of available water and providing credit at the right time and extending insurance cover for the crop. Assuring remunerative price for the produce was of utmost important, he added. Providing rural storage facility for the farmers would help them to large extent, he added.

Director of CFTRI V. Prakash; Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji of Suttur Math; Vice-Chancellor of University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, J.H. Kulkarni, and Vice-Chancellor of UAS, Bangalore, P.G. Chengappa were present on the occasion.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section