Stressing on the need to address the concerns of farmers in the country, VM Mayande, Former Vice Chancellor of PDKV, Akola, Maharashtra speaking on “Role of Farm Engineering in Enhancing Agricultural Production and Farmers’ Income” at the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (IINRG) said on Wednesday that food and income security is a must for inclusive growth in the country. He, on the occasion, also emphasised on the need of huge investment in R&D activities and high execution efficiency at the ground level.
The lecture was a part of ‘7th Ms D Norris Memorial lecture’ which was organized alongwith a host of other programmes to celebrate 94th Foundation Day of ICAR-IINRG , Namkum , Ranchi. K K Sharma, Director IINRG; N Prasad, HOD of PPD Division, IINRG and AK Singh, Centre Head of ICAR-RCER were present on the occasion alongwith senior scientists, employees and others on the occasion.
“In spite of involvement of a bigger chunk of country’s population in its activities the share of agricultural sector in GDP is decreasing constantly. We have achieved food security but not agricultural prosperity. Present day need is to increase not only crop productivity but also profitability and increased farmers’ income will ultimately stabilize economy adding to prosperity of the country,” said Mayande.
“Farm income security is a serious national issue as farmers in distress are taking extreme step of ending life. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s announcement of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 is a step in right direction,” he added.
“Income security of farmers is hampered by merely concentrating on food grain agriculture” he added. later for increasing farmers income he suggested for minimisation of production costs, diversification of high value crops, investment in market infrastructure, setting up of storage and cold chain units, food processing for value addition and formation of agro based enterprises.
Earlier in the day, Mayande inaugurated PPD Division extension building.
later in the programme the institute signed an MoU with National Enterprises to renew the licence for manufacturing of Small Scale lab Processing Unit for further five years followed by felicitation of workers for their remarkable contribution in different categories related to scientific, technical, administrative and supporting staff.