Scientists urged to introspect if enough has been done to help farmers adopt modern technologies

Farming technologies have progressed swiftly in the recent years. But few of them have reached the farm from the laboratory. It is for the scientific community to introspect if enough has been done to help farmers adopt modern technologies, Minister Santosh Lad said in Dharwad on Sunday.

Farming technologies have progressed swiftly in the recent years. But few of them have reached the farm from the laboratory. It is for the scientific community to introspect if enough has been done to help farmers adopt modern technologies, Minister Santosh Lad said in Dharwad on Sunday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the Krishi Mela at the University of Agricultural Sciences.

He said that new technology and advanced research are crucial for the progress of the agriculture sector and welfare of the farmers and that it is the responsibility of institutions, scientists, policy-makers and leaders to ensure that these are taken up adequately.

“It is very interesting to see that the technologies being developed for the promotion of agriculture are not confined to a country or region. Compared to us, other countries have effectively adopted such technologies and have focused on advanced research. This has enabled them to increase food production but this is not the scenario in the country,” he said.

“Agriculture research cannot be done sitting within the four walls. Scientists have to visit fields and evaluate problems so that they can come up with new research works. They have to discuss problems with the district administration and find solutions to them,” he said.

“In India, cultivation has been carried out in over 150 million hectares of land. Of this, paddy is cultivated in 40 million hectares, wheat in 30 million hectares, sugarcane in 12 million hectares and horticulture crops in 20 million hectares of land. But the yield does not match the area under cultivation. In China, agricultural land is comparatively less but yield is three times more than in India,” the Minister said.

“Scientists have to question why we are stuck with low yields even after using new technologies and improved crop breeds. The university has to go a step ahead and give suggestions to policy-makers on formulating farmer-friendly crop insurance and also solutions to end farmer suicide,” he said.