Rising farm suicides cause of concern: Shanta Kumar

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, August 17

A two-day interactive meet of comptrollers of state agricultural universities, deemed universities, central universities and central agricultural universities was inaugurated at CSK Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University here today.

Kangra MP Shanta Kumar in his inaugural address said farming was the backbone of the Indian economy as around 70 per cent population was directly or indirectly engaged in farming.

He said financial management must keep in mind the needs of the nation for proper planning and effective implementation. He said the economy of the country was growing at a faster rate but still 26 crore people were living below poverty line.

He asked finance officers to resolve economic disparity by keeping all issues in mind.

He said an alarming number of suicides by farmers were a cause of concern. He asked all participants to deliberate on the issue as it was a challenge to be resolved by the collective efforts of all.

Dr NS Rathore, Deputy Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said a large number of reforms had been implemented in the ICAR and farm institutions should implement these at the earliest for the benefit of students and farmers. He said there were only 70,000 students studying agriculture in 75 farm universities and institutions.

SK Singh, Additional Secretary-cum Financial Adviser, ICAR, said comptrollers were key functionaries to implement ICAR schemes in farm universities and institutions.

He said the national agricultural research system was a dynamic system supporting state agricultural universities through all India coordinated research projects, krishi vigyan kendras and infrastructure support and citizens had right to know about the functioning of such institutions. He said time had come to maximise internal resources by the autonomous institutions and spend more money on core research issues.

Prof Ashok Kumar Sarial, Vice-Chancellor, informed about various achievements made by the university in the areas of academics, research and extension education.