The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Swaminathan lays stress on role of ryots in food security

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Swaminathan lays stress on role of ryots in food security

Special Correspondent

“Awareness must be created through participatory knowledge sharing”

— Photo: N. Sridharan

(From left) Mihoko Tamamura, Country Director, U.N. World Food Programme; Kanimozhi, MP; Meena Swaminathan; M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, MSSRF; and K. Kasturirangan, MP and Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, at the function at Taramani on Thursday.

CHENNAI: Science and technology alone can bridge the gap between the poverty of the people and the prosperity of nature, eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan said at the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) on Thursday. Speaking at the 20th Foundation Day function, he said there was not enough understanding and appreciation of the role farmers played for food and livelihood security in India. Awareness should be created through replicable models of participatory knowledge sharing, which could lead to relieving the agrarian distress in the country.

Kanimozhi, member of the Rajya Sabha, said that for a country with a huge population like India, food security was a pressing issue. Poverty and oppression of women were inter-connected, as nutrition deprivation in women tended to be passed down to future generations.

Mihoko Tamamura, country director, UN World Food Programme (UNWFP), said that although the food security crisis was global, a solution to India’s problems would go a long way in cooling price inflation.

India was faced with stagnating productivity and rising per capita food consumption and hence focussed research was required to ensure food security. Nearly a fourth of the world’s 850 million chronically hungry people (130 million were added during the current food crisis) were in India, she said.

Post-harvest losses accounted for 10-20 per cent of cereal production, she said, adding that the UNWFP was looking forward to working with the MSSRF to cut down on these losses and ensure adequate food security.

K. Kasturirangan, director, National Institute of Advanced Studies and chief guest at the function, said that space technology had a useful role to play in mitigating the agrarian problem. Using remote sensing applications for precision farming could make small farms viable.

India’s use of satellite technology for educational purposes was unique, he said, adding that resource mapping, tele-medicine, crop advisories were some of the areas in which the capacities had been utilised. He said that extension of the available facilities to multi-crop and mixed-crop issues would benefit farmers.

Dr. Kasturirangan also said that knowledge and technology-intensive methods should be employed in agriculture to ensure efficiency in food production.

The younger generation would be interested in agriculture only if it was made intellectually satisfying and economically rewarding, he said.

Exceptional work

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, recorded Dr. Swaminathan’s outspokenness against the silent agrarian crisis of mammoth proportions. He said that MSSRF’s work with mangrove conservation, plant genetics etc. involving young scientists was exceptional and that such efforts were required to solve problems of nutrition deprivation in the country.

Annual report

The foundation’s annual report for 2007-08 was presented by A.M.Gokhale, executive director, MSSRF, and the first copy of the book and CD of the annual report were released by Ms. Kanimozhi to Mr. Kasturirangan

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