Addressing a gathering of workers from agriculture sector on the occasion of Workers’ Day at Tainisi, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) team leader Swapna Sarangi urged the Government to declare agriculture as an industry and agriculturist as labourers.
The underlying idea of the event was to ensure that agriculture is given the status of an industry and the people involved in the sector given the status of labourers. This will in turn help in tackling issues like food security, climate change and migration etc. Further, it will also attract the investors to invest in the sector, absence of which leads to lackadaisical attitude of the youth towards agriculture.
According to a study conducted by the FES, 98 per cent youth in Angul district are not interested to have agriculture as a career option because of lack of investment and incentives in the field. Declaring it as an industry will help in alluring the investors which in turn will improve the engagement of the youth with agricultural sector, Sarangi opined.
NABARD manager RK Das spoke on sustainable farming patterns and urged for the creation of a maintenance fund to continue community involvement in land based activities.
Organised by the FES, with support of Charmallick Anchalika Vikash Parisad, the meeting was also addressed by NABARD AGM PK Jena, who advised the farmers to make a land use plan which will keep the farmers engaged throughout the year, reducing outward migration to the industrial areas. The event was attended by village representatives of 30 watershed villages of Angul.