Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on Thursday called upon the Government to have a policy that prohibited acquiring fertile agricultural land to set up industries and Special Economic Zones.
Inaugurating the Krishi Mela-2010, a four-day farm fest on the Gandhi Krishi Vignyan Kendra campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences (Bangalore), he said that while industrial production was important, it could not be at the cost of agricultural production and food security.
“A nation cannot preserve its sovereignty without food security,” he said, and added that food insecurity was threatening the entire world. The Centre and the State should work together to encourage farm universities to come up with technology to speed up agricultural production, he said.
Farmers should get their due if they had to be encouraged to produce more not just in terms of subsidies and minimum support price, but also a wide social security net that assured a high standard of living with health and educational benefits. It was tragic that farmers and labourers, two important pillars of society, are the poorest in the country, Mr. Bhardwaj added.
Krishna Byre Gowda, MLA, said that farmers should demand what would serve them on a long-term basis, such as implementation of long-pending irrigation projects. The annual Krishi Mela served as a unique opportunity for agricultural experts and farmers to meet, and both of them stood to gain from the interaction.
Emphasising the plight of farmers in the dry belts of Karnataka, he said that they sometimes sink borewells as deep as 1,200 feet and yet did not find water.
Social Welfare Minister A. Narayanaswamy said agricultural research should take into account not just the 15 per cent of land-owning communities, but also the 50 lakh families in Karnataka from depressed classes who worked on these lands.
