Lamenting that producers are finding it difficult to market organic agricultural products, former Vice-Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural University N. Markandan has called upon the Union and State governments to help create markets for organic agricultural products at the taluk level.
Presiding over the inauguration of the national-level tenth annual Traditional Paddy Festival organised by the Create Natural Agriculture Training and Research Centre at Adirangam near here on Saturday, Dr. Markandan said although organic farming had been the norm in the past, demands of a burgeoning population and the consequent need to increase the yield led to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
To stem the adverse effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the body, farmers must take to organic farming in each and every village and possibly that could ensure higher returns and profitability for growers. Also, the producers were finding it difficult to market natural and organic agricultural products.
The government, both at the Centre and in the State, should create markets at the taluk level and that could boost natural and organic farming in a big way, Dr. Markandan said.
In the workshops and seminars that followed, several leading and eminent natural and organic farming practitioners shared their experience and explained the intricacies to the audience.
There was an exhibition of traditional paddy varieties and those on show included paddy crops such as Mappillai Samba, Kichali Samba, Kaivara Samba, Singini Kar, Madmuzhingi, Iluppapoo Samba, Kuzhiyadichan, Kottara Samba, Thooyamalli, and Kattubhanam.
During the last edition of the Traditional Paddy Festival, each participating farmer was given two kg of paddy seeds which they had raised and brought four kg each of the produce to the current event.
Markandan says demand on productivity led to use of chemical fertilizer
The governments urged to create a market for marketing organic products
