Open approach towards Organic Farming
Coimbatore: "While the rest of the world has gone ahead in the field of value addition in agriculture, we still lag behind due to a variety of factors. They include lack of unified policy framework, reservations against food processing and inward looking policy of discouraging exports of agricultural products," Jatindra Nath Swain, Special Secretary to Government and Commissioner of Drought Prone Area Programme, Coimbatore on Tuesday.
Inaugurating the third regional meeting of the Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA) at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University-Coimbatore, he said that it was an accepted fact that there was a strong factor of stagnation in the agriculture sector, though other sectors seemed to prosper in terms of growth.
Inaugurating the third regional meeting of the Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA) at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University-Coimbatore, he said that it was an accepted fact that there was a strong factor of stagnation in the agriculture sector, though other sectors seemed to prosper in terms of growth.
"Indian agriculture with its diverse production capabilities, infinite variety and size will provide a perfect setting for the germination of fresh ideas that will drive value addition. Agricultural universities must make interventions in different areas to promote value addition. In addition to core areas, they should create a talent pool of freshers who will be eager to tap opportunities in the sector of food processing," Mr. Swain said.
C. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor of TNAU-Coimbatore, said that sustainable agriculture was considered to be economically viable to meet the human needs for food, to be environmentally positive and concerned with quality of life. To achieve sustainable agriculture, rationalised use of land, move towards market led crop diversification and an open approach towards organic farming should be underlined, he added.
M.P. Yadav, President of the IAUA, said that though Indian agriculture had crossed several phases since the Green Revolution, it had seen a deceleration in productivity in recent times. "Now is the time to look backward and move forward". Value addition is very important as currently India processed only 7 per cent of its agricultural produce. It was required for consumption, storage and export, he emphasised.
About 40 Vice-Chancellors from agricultural universities all over the country attended the two-day annual event. They would deliberate on topics like the concept and scope of value addition in agricultural products, post-production management of tropical and temperate fruits, new technologies of agro-processing and post-harvest engineering and issue and challenges of animal product processing technologies, spread out in seven technical sessions.
Source:The Hindu
