Are we doing Agriculture properly?

Agriculture

Irrigation

Pesticides

Seeds

Fruits

webgeek

I was asking this because I happen to have ready on some agriculture research website that countries like the US, UK and even Isreal which have good technology background are serious putting technology for field work. One recent highlight in their agriculture field is the usage of GPS technology to pin point best places for farming and then taking the help of agriculture researches to identify which crops are commercially good.

Another latest thing they have put for innoviative use is satellite weather maps to forecast the wather for the week and scheduling their agriculture activities appropriately. Of course, we need to blame our weather forcaster - the Met Department, who, despite their best, are giving improper and insufficient weather forecasting information. I do not blame them but there is a big gap in terms of technology put for use in this area.

Futher, they are using online auction services to sell their agriculture produce. It is high time that our Government recognizes that our Market yards where farmers bring all their product to sell are not, even for today, not networked properly. Networking of agriculture markets is one key aspet for proper analysis of demand and supply for agriculture outputs.

The agriculture tools that we use are of very low quality in terms of their design. I really do not know if our agricultural universities are serious working on devicing new tools to treat various kinds of lands.

Another important thing that i have observed from the readings is that there is lots of research work (both academic and scientific) on two main agricultural sectors - organic agriculture and tropical agriculture. Many people living in urban dwellings of andhra does not like to take up courses related to farming and agriculture. I would also like to tell you that the Mittal family (who owns Bharathi AirTel) are serious considering agriculture as one of their core business. News is that they have already bought large farming lands in Punjab and Maharastra. ITC has already put in huge investments on agriculture.
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kumars · Telugu Kavi Joined: 14 Dec 2005 Posts: 828

i'd say big NO if somebody ask me whether we r doing agriculture properly.

we should blame Govt. & allied depts for thier miserable failure in carrying the latest technology and tools to an average farmer.

farmer living in remote areas is totally unaware of recent developments in the feild and is struggling with the same technique and procedure. the same procedure in most of cases may not be valid and yeild out put today for many reasons.

i heard about VDO (village development officer) in the past ,who bridges the gap between latest technology and farmer. i don't know abt present situation.

most of the farmers today believe that agriculture is not worthy occupation.
In contrary , there are many successful farmers making good fortune applying little technology.

Govt. really need to work hard to fill the gap between technology hub and farmer.And education syllabus/practicals for courses like Bsc Agriculture need to be re structured for the benifit of farmers.
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Kumars

statesman · Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 10:13 am Post subject:

this country has more than 60-70% illiterates who have been banking on agriculture / horticulture and making a liiving for some and people those having higher size of farms are doing it for earning more money. These dispatirities in small and big farmers have made the agriculture a no body'sland in this country.

to remove these disparities this agriculture/ horticulture should be made an industy first. there should be one department for which shouldwork as a single window. This department should have their own bank having branches all over to finance farmers on mortigage basis. these branches should have their own godowns for storage of produce. banks taking the produce should immediately pay the farmer at the rate of 90% of minimum supportprice fixed by government. government should ban private people purchasing the produce from farmers and vice versa. government should directly sell these produce on auction at market yards to interested or sell it in freetrade zones for export

The single window branch should open a ID for each farmer with a power connection, telephone connection, bank account, IT number, VAT number and PF number.these farmers should be given training in such a way to cultivate the value added agriculture produce under expert guidence. these agriculture singlewindowdepartment should plan for their own power plants for uninterupted power supply, bio technology labs for seeds and sedlings. farmers must pay the amount as fixed by government for providing the services. this acconutability only brings reforms in agriculture other wise what ever we talk is a futile exercise.
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STATESMAN

webgeek · Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 6:24 pm Post subject: Credit system for farmers

Thinking in one way, the reason why many of our farmers fail is because they cannot afford to get the latest technology. I should say, even today, there is a large segment of farmers who do not use tractors.

This is happening because the credit system to the farmers is very poor. Even crop insurance also does not function properly. Many of the private banks and insurance companies are away from funding agriculture. This brings about a burden on the state-owned banks to do the necessary funding and extend credit.
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I like Tomorrow...
Because I like waiting for it to come everyday..