Naidu asks Farm Scientists to ensure home grown food security

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on March 31, 2018, called upon Farm Scientists to focus on making agriculture viable, profitable and sustainable, besides ensuring home-grown food security to meet the needs of a burgeoning population. He was interacting with the Agricultural Researchers on ‘Doubling Farm Income by 2022 in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana’ at ICAR – Indian Institute of Rice Research, at Hyderabad.

The Vice President posed several questions to the scientists and elicited their responses on how their research was translating to empower the farmers. Asking them to come out with innovative and out-of-box solutions to meet the challenges faced by farmers, the Vice President said, “A happy farmer makes a happy country.”

“We know the problems. What are the solutions, what are the new ideas…what is the way forward to take technology to the farmers,” Naidu asked. He pointed out that lack of quality seeds is one of the problems facing the farmers.

Similarly, another issue that needed attention was rising input costs. Crop diversification and promoting allied farming activities like backyard poultry were equally important to increase farmers’ income. He also wanted the scientists to make e-NAM more popular with the farming community, according to a PIB release.

Stressing on the need for home-grown food security, Naidu said both productivity and production have to be increased as the country can’t depend on “imported food security”. He said the Krishi Vigyan Kendras should become the hubs of activity for farmers.

Asking the scientists and researchers to spend “considerable time” with farmers to come out with practical solutions, Naidu suggested that staying with farmers should be made mandatory for students pursuing agricultural courses. ​Referring to agricultural credit,  Naidu emphasized on the need of giving timely and affordable credit to the farmers at reasonable interest.

Naidu said, “We have a situation today where despite phenomenal increase in food production, farmers are not able to get adequate returns from their investment. Agriculture remains an unattractive vocation to many families. We must change this situation.”

The Vice-President said, “We should focus on production and productivity to have adequate home grown food security. At the same time it is not merely increasing the production and per acre productivity alone which is important.  It is also important for us to recognise that along with technology transfer and ‘intensification’ of agriculture, there must be strategic ‘diversification’ and attention to the key linkages in the eco-system. ”