‘Needs to promote processing sector to improve farmers’ lot
KARNAL: Wassfi Hassan El Sreihin, secretary general of African-asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO), on Saturday said India is lagging behind in the processing sector and neesd more focus to improve the financial condition of its farmers.
“India has huge production of land and sea products but it is still lagging behind in the processing sector, which is the major problem behind the poor financial condition of its farmers,” said Sreihin in an interaction with Hindustan Times, on the sidelines of the Golden Jubilee International Salinity Conference at ICAR-CSSRI-KARNAL.
“There is a need to focus on the grading of products to improve their quality as it would increase the priced to help the farmers,” he added.
“No doubt, India is doing well in development of rural areas but at a very slow pace. The country also needs to spread awareness about the farmers, including marketing management, soil management and adoption of new technologies”, he said when asked about the reasons behind the poor condition of Indian farmers.
“No other member countries of AARDO have the kind of research institutes India have, but they need to adopt new technologies. The linkage between the research institutes and farmers should be enhanced,” he said.
He added, ”There is also need to make farmers aware of the impact of land degradation, soil salinity and water salinity to improve their growth. India needs to do more to improve infrastructure for land and sea products, transportation and irrigation along with good agriculture practices (GAP), he added.
Sreihin suggested that farmers consider agriculture as their business and adopt the latest technologies instead of waiting for the government subsidies.
Replying a question about the increasing use of fertilisers and pesticides, he said, “Awareness is very important to deal with this problem as this is also harmful for the health of soil and people both.”
SECY GENERAL OF AFRICAN-ASIAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION SAYS STEPS NEEDED TO STOP BLATANT USE OF FERTILISERS AND PESTICIDES