Develop new farm techniques: Guv

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 13

Generating awareness among farmers regarding the research being conducted in laboratories is essential as this knowledge, if not disseminated among farmers, will be meaningless, said Governor Acharya Devvrat, inaugurating the four-day state-level Farmer Training Camp on Organic Agriculture and Zero Budget Natural Farming organised by Dr YS Parmar University of Forestry and Horticulture at Nauni in Solan.

Exhorting farm scientists to conduct intense research to promote traditional farming, he urged them to come out with new techniques and information to update farmers for improving their skills and methods. He said there was need to develop indigenous seeds which were disease-resistant and urged the agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry departments to take the knowledge to the fields and farmers and concentrate more on monitoring the field activities.

He said the use of natural pesticides should be encouraged and the farmers should be made aware regarding their usage as pesticides being used were not only harmful for consumers but was also destroying the fertility of soil. He said farmers should adopt cycle of crops which was part of traditional farming.

Dr Subhash Palekar, resource person, said many acres were available for cultivation and to cater to the food requirement of entire population of the country, the agriculture production had to be doubled by 2050 which was a major challenge.