TNAU Vice Chancellor flays poor funding for farm research
Central government has ‘not added a single paise’ for farm research in the union budget
By : purnima sah
Update: 2015-04-25 06:47 GMT
COIMBATORE: Amid nation-wide outrage over a farmer's suicide at a Delhi rally, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Vice Chancellor K. Ramasamy has regretted that the Central government has ‘not added a single paise’ for farm research in the union budget.
Agricultural research in Tamil Nadu and other states has been hit by woefully low funding by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Vice Chancellor told the Deccan Chronicle on Friday.
“About 56 per cent of the Indian population belongs to farming community. The research fund allocation is just 15 per cent which is not enough for field trails of scientists,”lamented the vice-chancellor.
The 66 state agricultural universities in the country get a total of about Rs 80 crore which is far too less for conducting farm research, the Vice Chancellor said in an interaction with the Deccan Chronicle on the sidelines of the 50th annual group meet of all India co-ordinate research project on pearl millet held at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
There are 4860 scientists working in ICAR and they need at least Rs. 10 000 lakh for normal research activities. They are getting a monthly salary but cannot do fundamental field research, said the Vice Chancellor.
In 2015-16 Union budget, the Centre has allotted Rs. 10,000 crore for agriculture department but the ICAR has been allotted only Rs 2800 crores, which have to shared among the four new agriculture universities in Jodhpur, Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana and 66 state agriculture universities. Only Rs 60 to 80 crores funds are left for 66 state agricultural universities in the country.
“Until now researchers have concentrated only on enhancing productivity. There are countries like Africa who do not use fertilizers at all, India should learne to adopt those techniques to save the agriculture," he said.
Speaking at the meet, Ishwar Singh Solanki, assistant director general of Food and Fodder Crop, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said that despite a 22 per cent decline in area of cultivation, the production of pearl millets has improved drastically over the years.
The productivity is bound to increase further but farmers and researchers should focus on crop protection, increase the quality of crops. Government would come up with some efforts required to make millet popular among farmers and consumers, he added.