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There is a need to adopt business as “unusual” to sustain and improve farm sector because farmers’ condition is deplorable even though farming has improved, new NAAS President Panjab Singh said on Monday.
“While farming has improved, the condition of our farmers who feed us all continues to be deplorable and needs our utmost attention,” said Singh after taking charge as President of think-tank National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) for a period of three year.
Singh, who was earlier Chancellor of Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, said that he has identified some of the priority areas to boost farm sector growth.
Natural resources
NAAS would look at ways to achieve simultaneous improvement in basic natural resources and also farm production. “As of now, one is growing at the cost of other. Policy and technological dimensions are to be set in place to achieve this,” he said in a statement.
On wastage of agri-produce, he said, “As of now, we are producing more to lose more. At present, about 90 per cent of the farm produce is sold (in distress sale) soon after harvest, letting farmers lose much of their share of income.”
There is a need to have innovative technologies and define investment priorities to balance the two, he said.
Higher production
The other focus areas, Singh said, would include increasing production of pulses and oilseeds, better implementation and monitoring of some government programmes like crop insurance and procurement at MSP among others.
Human resource development at every level, both by number and by training, is a major concern and this needs to be addressed, he added.
NAAS founded in 1990
NAAS, a think-tank of intellectuals to address emerging challenges and provide inputs to stakeholders in promoting sustainable agriculture and excellence in agriculture science, was founded way back in 1990.
It is headquartered at PUSA campus in the national capital and has 15 regional chapters across the country.
Singh is an agronomist by training and possesses more than four decades of experience in agriculture research, education and planning and management across institutions and organisations.
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