PAT Annual Conference
B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore, (second right), presenting an award to K. Kalaivanan, who secured first rank in S.S.LC. examination among the plantation workers’ children, at the annual conference of the Planters’ Association of Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore on Saturday. President of the United Planters’ Association of Southern India, D.P. Maheshwari, (third right) and the Chairman of PAT, T. Jayaram (right), are in the picture.Planters in the State should present to the Government a draft of the development and technology mission for the plantation sector, suggested T. Jayaraman, chairman of the Planters’ Association of Tamil Nadu (PAT). Speaking at the annual general meeting of the association here on Saturday, he said the mission should comprise issues related to land use, limited diversification of crop, forest and tree laws, environmental concerns and resource regeneration.
All departments of the Government should be involved.With labour shortage and increasing wages, the sector should look at advanced farm technology for large-scale mechanisation of field operations and balancing the higher labour wages and other costs with higher productivity. The State Government should relax the private forest law and the law on tree cutting in hilly areas, by which plantations could meet part of their fuel needs from the shade trees. There was, however, a view that the improved price was a temporary phenomenon and was a result of the steep fall in the Kenyan production brought about by adverse weather conditions and internal strife. Indian prices were expected to come down with normal supply and demand equilibrium.
The Chairman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore, B.K. Krishnaraj Vanvarayar, said almost all sectors had economic problems now, though in different forms. These were mainly due to the wrong policies. Planters should work together to find solutions to the issues faced by the sector. They should prepare an action plan and present it to the Government for a solution, he said.
