Governor Jharkhand, Ramesh Bais urged the agricultural scientists to spread the message of natural farming in at least one village of every panchayat of the State so that the ill effects of chemical-based farming on soil, environment and human health should be minimised.
Addressing the 45th Vice Chancellors' (VCs’) convention of Indian Agricultural Universities Association (IAUA), at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) on Monday, Bais said, “I am well aware of the pains and predicament of farmers as I come from a farmers' family.” No one in my extended family is in Government jobs and all are associated with farming, he added. He urged the scientists to devise strategies for ensuring the availability of soil health cards to all farm families so that they could use fertilizers as per requirement only. Overdose of nutrients will certainly have adverse effects on soil health, he added.
The Governor said 80 per cent of farming operations in Jharkhand are performed by women, therefore, scientists should devise ways and means for improving their conditions. Farmers of low soil-fertility status regions should incorporate horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries too in their farming system for sustainable return, he added.
President and Vice Chancellor Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Dr RK Mittal, Secretary General, IAUA and Vice Chancellor, Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University Samastipur, Bihar, Dr Dr RC Srivastava dwelt on the role and activities of IAUA for betterment of Agricultural education and solution of member universities' problems.
Welcoming the guests, BAU VC Dr Onkar Nath Singh underlined the importance of coordination among farm varsities. Dr SK Pal, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture proposed a vote of thanks. Shashi Singh anchored the event.
Earlier in the day technical sessions were held in Senate Hall. Session on 'Achieving international standard in agricultural education and research in the context of new national education policy' was chaired by VC, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, UP, Dr Arvind Kumar stressed on increasing intake capacity of students in agricultural universities, introducing new courses of relevance according to the national priorities like precision farming, protected cultivation, dryland horticulture, entrepreneurship development, business management and others and recruiting at least 25 per cent faculty having postdoctoral fellowship or PhD degree from abroad.
Second session on 'Strategies to increase and sustain agricultural productivity and profitability with development and application of appropriate technologies' was chaired by Dr SC Agarwal, DDG, ICAR. Dr A Wadood, Director Research, BAU anchored the technical sessions.