Farmers should embrace latest technology and go for value addition in view of irrigation water limitations, Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Director General, T Mohapatra said here today.
Addressing the meeting of 25th ICAR regional committee at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here, T Mohapatra said, farmers should quit the traditional method of farming and adopt new technology and go for value addition, in view of water limitations.
He also said, though bodies like ICAR tried to solve the problems faced by states in the field of agriculture, officials participating in such meetings were not abreast of the status and statistics of the issues faced by the respective states, which was a matter of serious concern.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Puducherry Agriculture Minister, R Kamalakannan said, ICAR has to take up research on agriculture under saline conditions as the water table has gone down drastically in several places, owing to adverse impact of flood irrigation.
Given the reduced availability of water, soil salinity, there was scope for crop diversification and Puducherry may be suitable for finger millets as well as minor millets, he said, adding farmers need to be apprised about new and innovative agronomic practices for increasing the yield as well as income.
Considering the huge risk involved in agriculture, a price cum weather insurance programme should be introduced, covering all crops and initially a subsidy on premium can be paid by the concerned state government while the remaining can be borne by the individual farmers, he added.
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