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“Agriculture should be made an attractive and exciting proposition. Gone are the days of sustainable agriculture. We are more concerned about resilient farming today,” ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Director-General, Dr S. Ayyappan. said.
He was here at the valedictory function of the 11th edition of Agri Intex 2011 organised jointly by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Annual expo
Hailing the farm varsity for bagging the Best Institution Award for 2011 by ICAR, he urged the fair participants to showcase their products during the annual expo at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.
Speaking about ICAR's agri incubator initiatives, he said, “We have promoted 10 business development projects.
Fifty-one value chains have been put in place and it is one of its kind in the world, covering the entire value chain from seed to market.”
He said ICAR was collecting data which signalled that people were returning to agriculture.
“Though labour paucity is an issue in agriculture, youngsters today are looking for exciting, interesting and challenging jobs. Use of ICT tools in agriculture is now driving more people into this space, as these youngsters are bored writing software programmes.”
Farmer suicide
When asked why the suicide numbers were on the rise among farmers if agriculture was considered a profitable proposition, Dr Ayyappan said ‘it is not farming, but the scale of holding that is not remunerative.
Around 140 million people hold 130 million acres in our country (roughly). The holdings are highly fragmented and input-use efficiency is completely disorganised.”
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