Venkaiah Naidu exhorts scientists to find lasting solutions to farmers' woes

Hyderabad: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday exhorted scientists and researchers to come up with new innovations and ideas to find solutions to the challenges faced by the farmers.

He stressed the need for encouraging the farmers to take up the agriculture and allied activities such as fishy culture, horticulture, prawn culture, poultry, dairy and silviculture in addition to regular farming activities for getting more profits from agriculture.

Inaugurating the 2nd edition of exhibition and conference on 'Agri-technology & Innovation' at Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU) here, Venkaiah said a meeting of scientists, researchers, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and farmers should be conducted on regular basis to adopt best agricultural practices and make farming remunerative.

He stated miracles can be created if farmer's knowledge relating to the field and the research of the scientists are brought together. He suggested to the students of agriculture to spend half of their time in classrooms and the rest with farmers to gain first-hand practical knowledge and acquaint themselves with the problems of the farmers.

The Vice President also called upon the agriculture universities to focus on developing new varieties, including pest-resistant and climate smart variants, apart from enhancing the productivity levels. He mentioned collective efforts are needed to achieve self-sufficiency in food production.

Observing that freebies and loan waivers were only provide temporary relief to the farmers, the Vice President said the farmer needed long-term and holistic measures that make agriculture viable and profitable.

He opined that farmers need measures like quality power supply, godowns, cold storage facilities, refrigerator vans apart from ensuring quality inputs and timely and adequate credit to the farmers.

Expressing concern over the fast depleting water resources, Venkaiah Naidu called for preservation and protection of traditional water bodies.

He appreciated the work done by Telangana government in this regard.

Calling the organic farming as the need of the hour for mitigating farm crisis and climate change issues, Venkaiah called for more technological tools to assist organic farmers. He said Agri-tech Exhibition will be useful in creating awareness about best practices and technologies among the farmers.

He also congratulated the Telangana government, CII and the PJTSAU to bring together the scientists, researchers and farmers on a single platform. He also visited various stalls put up after inaugurating the exhibition.

Telangana Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said the State government has been implementing several reforms for making of agriculture more profitable. Under Rythu Bandhu scheme, the government was giving Rs 12,000 crore as input grant to the 57 lakh farmers, he said.

Dr V Praveen Rao, Vice Chancellor, PJTSAU, said the university achieved several laurels and stood at third place among the agricultural universities in the country.

He said the university was realigning its research activities with the societal needs. CII Chairman D Raju, ICRISAT DG Dr Peter Carberry, Convenor, CII Telangana agricultural panel GV Subba Reddy Agri-tech south Chairman Anil Kumar V were also present.

Later, the Vice President inaugurated the exhibition at the university sports complex.