Mooting the idea of bridging the gap between farmers and corporates, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs M. Veerappa Moily on Friday said he was considering involving corporates in the country to get remunerative prices for farmers' produce.
“I am thinking about how the corporates can be involved as part of their corporate social responsibility to help farmers get good prices for their produce,” Mr. Moily said while participating at the third-day's programme of the five-day national Krishi Mela being organised by the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore on its campus.
He recalled that President Pratibha Patil too had stressed the need for building a bridge between farmers and industries.
He stressed the need for bringing about progressive amendments to the APMC Act to create a common market in the entire country for agricultural produce, so that farmers would get remunerative prices.
Emphasising the fact that the country cannot develop without the development of its farmers, he said: “The country cannot become a superpower as long our farmers are not superpowers.” He suggested that the 300 backward districts in the country should be developed for the welfare of farmers.
He hailed the UAS-B for organising a national Krishi Mela for the first time to help farmers learn the best practices in different States. He called upon farmers who have been introduced to new and innovative technologies at the mela to spread this knowledge among their fellow farmers.
Speaking on the occasion, the former Vice-Chancellor and renowned agricultural extension expert R. Dwarakinath cautioned that the agriculture sector would face a serious crisis if steps were not taken to improve dry-land farming as a majority of the farmers in the country were cultivating dry lands. But the policy makers were yet to take serious note of this as most of those who were making policies were not well-versed in agriculture, he alleged.
Dry-land farming
He expressed concern that though the UAS-B and several non-governmental organisations from the State had developed effective models for dry-land development, such examples were not being emulated at the national level.
Dr. Dwarakinath Best State-level extension Awards as well as the district and taluk-level Best Farmer Awards were presented on the occasion.
UAS-B Vice-Chancellor K. Narayana Gowda also spoke.
