'Consumers complaining too much about onions'

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the UAS Alumni Global Meet organised by the Alumni Association, University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), in the city.
The Governor said more emphasis should be laid on the development of the agriculture sector and ensuring food security.

Observing that attaining food security was not a simple task as the country needed to feed a gigantic population of one billion, the Governor said that there had always been food scarcity in the country.

“During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister, there was scarcity of pulses. We imported a lot of pulses, but that was of no help. During Narasimha Rao’s period, there was scarcity of edible oil. Despite importing palm oil from Indonesia in huge quantities, it was also not of much help,” he said.

Some of the scarcity, according to him, happened when there was a demand due to festivals. There is a need for proper implementation of the Consumer Protection Act, the Governor said. Bhardwaj noted that the production target was achieved by the country only in the case of rice and wheat.

Emphasising on the education of farmers and improving agriculture through science and technology, he called upon the agriculture scientists to make contributions to the agro sector and ensure that the fruits of their efforts reached the farming community.

Dr G Parameshwara, KPCC President and a member of the alumni association, emphasised the need to increase productivity using latest technology. He also said that the Government should allocate more funds for the agriculture sector in the budget.
The Association felicitated Dr R Dwarakinath, former Vice Chancellor of UAS, on the occasion.

3 generations of alumni
The Association also honoured three generations of students from a single family, who studied and served at the University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Bangalore.
H S Puttaswamy, an octogenarian, graduated from the college in 1950 and has served the varsity as a faculty.

His son H P Mohan is a faculty at the agriculture department of the UAS, while Mohan’s son H M Sriram is a graduate from the UAS.