New Delhi: While inaugurating the country's first-ever National Agrochemical Congress held in Pusa, New Delhi, on Friday, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar stressed on the need to spread awareness on the positive usage of agrochemicals and pesticides in the agricultural sector.
"Agrochemicals and pesticides have its own role to play in increasing farm productivity, but lack of awareness has spread a lot of misconception among the general public, " said Tomar.
Echoing his views, Dr. AK Singh, Deputy Director General, Agriculture Extension, told ETV Bharat, "Apart from Haryana and Punjab, other states do not use as many agrochemicals or pesticides, and there is a lot of stigma attached to them. Other countries use 500 kilogram of pesticides per hectare, and the corresponding figure for India is limited to 150-250 kilogram per hectare.
"The motive behind this meeting is to spread awareness among the general public and farmers about the usage of agro-chemicals-pesticides and their alternatives," added Dr. Singh.
Apart from talking about agrochemicals, pesticides and it's usage, the Agriculture minister also spoke about the need to address the issues faced by small and marginal farmers.
"There is a need to address the issues of small and marginal farmers through the generation of right knowledge access platforms and provision of basic agricultural inputs at affordable costs as these farmers predominantly comprise (around 86%) the farm sector today and their contribution towards national economy is quite significant, " said Tomar.
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Tomar also said that there is an urgent need to shift the focus from "sustainable production to sustainable agri-food systems".
"To alleviate the farmers in the country, farming has to be transformed from low key activity to a fully structured profitable livelihood profession. A ‘Farmer FIRST’ approach has to be adopted by all the stakeholders involved at various levels including Government, industry, science and extension machinery, " said the Agriculture minister.
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Tomar added, "The minister requested all the stakeholders in the farm sector to come together and work together rather than working aloof, in order to make the sector prosperous and thus ultimately contributing to the nation’s progress."
The National Agrochemicals Congress, 2019, themed around 'Country's Status on Various Fronts of Agrochemicals' is being held for four days, from 13th to 16th of November.
