Conserving biodiversity, especially agricultural biodiversity is becoming a major challenge, said the State Agriculture and Horticulture minister Subodh Uniyal. He said this after inaugurating the children’s biodiversity summit at Navdanya biodiversity farm here on the weekend.
The Minister said that the State Government is going to turn Uttarakhand fully organic so as to provide even small farmers a better source of income. He said that the Government will also facilitate the marketing of the organic produce of farmers so that the cultivators can get proper price for their produce.
Presiding over the occasion, former scientist of Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences, NP Krishnan stressed on the need for conservation of Himalayan biodiversity. He also submitted a letter to the Agriculture Minister in this regard.
He said that it is now upto the younger generation to bring about improvement in situation affected by climatic changes through conservation and improvement of biodiversity. The Uttarakhand biodiversity board member secretary Sargam Singh Rasaily stressed on the importance of conserving all species ranging from the ant to the elephant in order to maintain the environmental balance as required. He recounted various examples to stress on the significance of conservation.
Speaking on the occasion, noted environmentalist and Navdanya founder Vandana Shiva said that it is the responsibility of human society to conserve the environment. The health of people will improve in correlation with the proportion of organic produce they consume in their diet, she said.
It was also stated that 10 of the students participating in the summit will be selected to participate in the International Biodiversity Congress slated to be held during October this year at the Forest Research Institute.