Former Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Rajendra Singh Paroda has called for research by involving the farmers.
“The farmers and scientists should work together in order to meet the diverse needs of our agricultural sector,” he said.
Dr. Paroda was speaking after distributing a wide variety of farm inputs to 300 tribal families of Attappady at a function held at Agali on Tuesday. The ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, distributed tissue culture banana plantlets, grafted saplings of mango, sapota, nutmeg and jackfruit, seedlings of lemon, pomegranate, arecanut and coconut, and several farm tools such as battery operated sprayer, spade, digging fork, sickle, rosecane, crowbar and hand-hoe.
The institute also distributed raincoat, gumboot, storage bin, irrigation hose, PVC pipes, torch, chair and tables to the Adivasi families of Vallamari, Kalkandiyoor, Omapadiyoor, Soriyanur, Chalayur and Palakaiyur in Attappady hills, and some families of Koodapatti from Tamil Nadu.
ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Centre opened its regional centre at Agali in 1995 to help sugarcane farmers and scientists utilise the National Distant Hybridisation Facility, said Dr. Paroda. ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute director Bakshi Ram said that the institute could lay a solid road from Kalkandiyur-Pudur Road junction to Vallamari village using the tribal sub-plan funds. “A tractor is available at our Agali centre for the tribal farmers of Attappady. Any farmer can make use of it freely,” Dr. Bakshi said.
ICAR Assistant Director General R.K. Singh, ICAR-SBI former director K. Mohan Naidu, ICAR-SBI research advisory committee members, and many farmers attended the function.
