Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has said that the government is committed to bring back the respect and reverence to the farmer.
Speaking at the launch of an awareness campaign on organic farming organised by the Inter University Centre for Sustainable Organic Farming at Mahatma Gandhi University here on Saturday, the Minister said that only society which respected the farmer could hope for the goodness of life to come back.
Teaching basics
Stressing the need to evolve a new farming culture, Mr. Sunil Kumar said that it was imperative to inculcate the basics of agriculture to students and as such there was need to make necessary amendments in the curriculum so that a student who passes out of Class X would have preliminary knowledge about agriculture.
A new farming culture which would integrate modern information technology and traditional agri knowledge would have to emerge through the interaction of students and farmers, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor Babu Sebastian said the university had taken up the challenge to turn the district into ‘totally organic farming literate.’
According to him, 5,000 volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) would fan out at every household in the district and teach them about organic farming.
The project was expected to conclude on June 5, 2018 when the district would be declared organic farming literate, he said.
University registrar M.R. Unni, Syndicate members, principal agriculture officer Suma Philip, and others spoke.
