M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation founder chairman M. S. Swaminathan on Thursday stressed the need to strengthen credit and insurance facility to give a fillip to agriculture. It was also necessary to take the income of farmers into consideration while assessing agricultural growth, he said.
Dr. Swaminathan was addressing a meeting organised to launch the smart village initiative of Mitsubishi Corporation, here.
It was very difficult to draw the younger generation into the agriculture sector unless newer technologies were brought to the doorstep of farmers. Listing out the ‘Panchsheel’ for agriculture – soil, water, technology, credit and assured and remunerative markets, he said that the Foundation had developed the ‘Bio-village model’ which was an economically and environmentally sustainable model for development at the village level. Agricultural growth was not a mere accounting of increase or decrease in production. But, also should be an index of growth in farmers’ income, he asserted.
Stating that India faces malnutrition problem though it was producing a large quantity of food grains over 260 million tonnes, he said, “The proof of the pudding is eating it.” Therefore there was the need to look at bio-fortified plants – naturally occurring such as moringa and sweet potato that would help in nutrition capacity enhancement, he added. Listing out the State government initiates to develop smart villages, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that the government programmes would be integrated with the smart villages adopted by Mitsubishi Corporation.
Japan could invest in Andhra Pradesh. “I invite Japan to be partner in development of capital city, Amaravati,” he said.
