At the valedictory session of the two-day ‘Agri Expo’ at VIT on Tuesday, Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, Acting President of the Republic of Mauritius, inaugurated the VIT School of Agricultural Innovations and Advanced Learning and the VIT Agricultural Farm.
Addressing the gathering of farmers, Mr. Vyapoory said he was the fifth generation of his family, that came from Tamil Nadu to settle in Mauritius.
“They came to work in agriculture during the French and British colonisation. They came as artisans and masons to build the city and work in agriculture. That was about 150 years ago. Today, Mauritius is a prosperous country because of the hard work that they did along with others Indians from the States of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and the Chinese, French and also from Africa,” he said.
“With your agricultural work, you too can become prosperous,” he told the farmers.
He said that he would be taking part in the fifth Tamil Economic Conference in Puducherry and later at an event to mark the setting up of the Tamil Welfare Association by VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan. The association, he said, was aimed at propagating Tamil language and culture across the world.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Viswanathan said in a country like China, farmers were happy though the government granted no subsidy or free schemes. This was because the government provided all facilities for farmers including water sources, storage and marketing.
Irrigation infrastructure
Noting that the country lagged behind in irrigation facilities, he said, “Every district will have rivers, tanks and canals. The Members of Legislative Assembly of each constituency in the district should take the responsibility of protecting water sources in the constituency.” He added that a portion of the MLA’s Constituency Development fund could be contributed for agriculture and conservation of water bodies. He also urged the government to take up interlinking of rivers.
VIT Vice-President G.V. Selvam said the aim was to take agriculture to the next generation. Anand A. Samuel, Vice-Chancellor of VIT and C.R. Sundararajan, professor in-charge of Centre for Sustainable Rural Development and Research Studies also spoke.
