<p>Speaking at the at the ‘Rashtriya Krishi Mela – 2011’ here on Friday, Moily said that farmers face a lot of hurdles to sell their crops at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee yards and certain rules need to be amended to fetch competitive price for the farmers.<br /><br />“Innovations in science and technology should cater to the needs of farmers. University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS) should not limit itself to just awarding degrees and PhDs to students. Instead the varsity should involve in a lot of research activities. The Union government has chalked out big plans in the 12th Five Year Plan for research purpose,” Moily said. <br /><br />Six farmers were conferred Dr R Dwarakinath award for the best farmer and best extension worker. District level best farmer and farm woman award was given to 20 individuals from different districts on the occasion. <br /><br />Krishi Mela has gone national this year with the participation of other states and central organisations. Representatives of Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering from Bhopal and Chennai, part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) participating in the event said they had an overwhelming response from farmers enquiring about various tools used for farming. <br /><br /> “One of the major problems in the Indian farming system is lack of labourers and our Institutes have developed various machinery and tools which can be easily used. There has been many enquiries for our groundnut sheller, sugarcane bud chipper and paddy transplanter, reaper and thresher at the Mela,” said S S Mandvikar, Manager Agriculture Technology Information Centre (ARIC).<br /><br />The stall put up by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropic displayed groundnuts, almost three times bigger than those available in the City. The Institute, which mainly focuses on dry land crops, has developed various technologies to enable farmers to grow best crop to get maximum yield. <br /><br />Success stories<br />There were also success stories of converting ‘saline soils’ into fish culture to re-fertile the soil for re-cultivation. University of Agricultural Sciences under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana has developed a technology to meet the growing demand for fish and to conserve degraded water logged soils. <br /><br /> Dr Shivakumar M, principal investigator of the project said, in Karnataka, about 2.42 lakh hectare of land is said to be saline or alkaline which is the result of continuous utilisation of the land growing the same crop, excessive irrigation and high input of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. <br /><br />As many as 258 villages spread across Mandya, Shimoga and Chikmagalur districts have such type of soil. “We identify such land and ask farmers to create a ‘fish pond’ and develop fish culture. This way the salts in the land can easily be managed in an aquatic system. <br /><br />Although it is a huge investment initially for the farmers, with government help saline soils can be converted into fishery business. The project already has 40 farmers making use of the project,” he added. More than 150 stalls set up at the fair display some of the best seeds, machinery, tool, cattle and poultry.<br /></p>
<p>Speaking at the at the ‘Rashtriya Krishi Mela – 2011’ here on Friday, Moily said that farmers face a lot of hurdles to sell their crops at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee yards and certain rules need to be amended to fetch competitive price for the farmers.<br /><br />“Innovations in science and technology should cater to the needs of farmers. University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS) should not limit itself to just awarding degrees and PhDs to students. Instead the varsity should involve in a lot of research activities. The Union government has chalked out big plans in the 12th Five Year Plan for research purpose,” Moily said. <br /><br />Six farmers were conferred Dr R Dwarakinath award for the best farmer and best extension worker. District level best farmer and farm woman award was given to 20 individuals from different districts on the occasion. <br /><br />Krishi Mela has gone national this year with the participation of other states and central organisations. Representatives of Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering from Bhopal and Chennai, part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) participating in the event said they had an overwhelming response from farmers enquiring about various tools used for farming. <br /><br /> “One of the major problems in the Indian farming system is lack of labourers and our Institutes have developed various machinery and tools which can be easily used. There has been many enquiries for our groundnut sheller, sugarcane bud chipper and paddy transplanter, reaper and thresher at the Mela,” said S S Mandvikar, Manager Agriculture Technology Information Centre (ARIC).<br /><br />The stall put up by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropic displayed groundnuts, almost three times bigger than those available in the City. The Institute, which mainly focuses on dry land crops, has developed various technologies to enable farmers to grow best crop to get maximum yield. <br /><br />Success stories<br />There were also success stories of converting ‘saline soils’ into fish culture to re-fertile the soil for re-cultivation. University of Agricultural Sciences under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana has developed a technology to meet the growing demand for fish and to conserve degraded water logged soils. <br /><br /> Dr Shivakumar M, principal investigator of the project said, in Karnataka, about 2.42 lakh hectare of land is said to be saline or alkaline which is the result of continuous utilisation of the land growing the same crop, excessive irrigation and high input of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. <br /><br />As many as 258 villages spread across Mandya, Shimoga and Chikmagalur districts have such type of soil. “We identify such land and ask farmers to create a ‘fish pond’ and develop fish culture. This way the salts in the land can easily be managed in an aquatic system. <br /><br />Although it is a huge investment initially for the farmers, with government help saline soils can be converted into fishery business. The project already has 40 farmers making use of the project,” he added. More than 150 stalls set up at the fair display some of the best seeds, machinery, tool, cattle and poultry.<br /></p>
