'Empower small, medium farmers'

Speaking on the occasion, Agriculture University Bangalore former Vice Chancellor Dr R Dwarakinath said empowerment of small and medium farmers is indeed necessary for the development of agricultural sector in India. Policy makers should introduce policies catering to the needs of the farmers belonging to these two categories who are not capable of competing with large scale farmers.

He said “expecting another green revolution in the country is futile. Attention should be paid to improve the productivity of the soil, to increase the production of the cereals. Organic farming is the need of the hour.”

The green revolution paved way for the introduction of the use of chemicals, fertilisers. This had an negative impact on the soil, ground water level, food stuffs and weather.
Entire biological system is paralysed besides affecting the human health. Novel measures should be adopted to increase the productivity of the soil, there by increasing the production of the agricultural products.

Government policy makers, agriculture universities and departments, scientists and NGOs should stop encouraging the use of chemicals and introduce measures supporting organic farming. Farmers should be trained in this direction, he said.

The loans and subsidies only help farmers financially and are of no use for increasing the productivity of the and. The third generation farmers are ignorant on the traditional methods of cultivation and are not willing to adopt them.

MIC Director M V Kamath, Manipal University Pro-Chancellor Dr H S Ballal, Dr Niranjan Murthy from University of Agriculture Science, Bangalore, Agriculture Research Station Joint Director Dr T R Guruprasad, NABARD GM K V Nagraj and others were present.