E-Paper
Reverse decline in agriculture growth: TVR
UP GOVERNOR and the Chancellor of the state universities TV Rajeswar said here today that reversing the decline in agriculture growth was a pre-requisite for improving the well being of the rural people.
UP GOVERNOR and the Chancellor of the state universities TV Rajeswar said here today that reversing the decline in agriculture growth was a pre-requisite for improving the well being of the rural people.
Delivering the inaugural address at the four-day international conference on “Post-harvest technology and value addition in cereals, pulses and oilseeds” at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology (CSA) the Governor said that according to reports the country would need 340 million tons of food grains by the year 2020. He urged the agro-scientists to work hard for doubling the output and working closely hand in hand with farmers.
The conference was jointly organised by the CSA and Indian Society of Agriculture Biochemists (ICAB). This was the tenth conference organised by the ICAB on the national level. Referring to the recommendation made by the National Commission of Farmers (NCF) headed by Dr MS Swaminathan he said we cannot improve the productivity of food grains or usher in the second green revolution without full cooperation of the rural people engaged in cultivation.
He said the commission had made several other recommendations like land reform, ownership of at least one acre of land for every single farmer family and amendment in the land acquisition Act. The implementation of these recommendations could yield encouraging results, he added.
The Governor said that there had been a lot of discussions about the land acquisition for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and some of these zones were coming up in 25,000 acres of land.
He, however, said that in our country the policy had been spelt out that the fertile land which was under cultivation, especially with double and triple crops, should not be acquired for SEZs. A lot of discussions and controversies were afloat and sooner or later an equitable policy would, no doubt have to be worked out by the government, he added.
He said the country was far behind in agricultural produce as compared to China, Japan and the USA. The Green Revolution, which was ushered in during the fourth and fifth plan in 1969-1974, had given good results as about 15 per cent of the total plan outlay was allocated for the development of agriculture. But in the subsequent years investment in agriculture went down to almost 1 to 1.6 per cent of the GDP in 1993-94. This affected the agro production in the country. Food production during 2002-2003 was the least during the preceding seven years, he said.
Speaking about the crisis in the agricultural sector, he said that farmers in Maharashtra and Bundelkhand region committed suicides due to failure of rains for the third year. There was acute distress and a large exodus of landless labour and the minimal agriculturists who had left their land and villages to get employment in the urban areas. “The society cannot allow this situation to continue and the entire rural support system has to be changed in the light of the recommendations of the NCF”, he said.
On the occasion, the Governor felicitated eminent scientists including Dr A Goel (USA), Dr Maria LV Oliva (Brazil) Dr M Pouzet (France) Dr YP Kalra (Canada) Dr RS Ranu (USA), PP Jauhar and VS malik (USA), Dr VK Suri (VC, CSA), RC Bora (Assam), Ravi Shanker and Rakesh Tuli for their outstanding contributions to the agriculture.
