LUDHIANA,
“Sustainable agriculture should not only be around cereals but around legumes and cereals,” said Dr R.S. Paroda, Former Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Former Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, while interacting with the senior officials and heads of the departments at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. Time has come when focus should be on nutritional security in addition to food security, he observed. Meeting the needs of the small farmers across the globe, strengthening the research on economics, and involving farmers’ participation in research for natural resource management should be the top three priorities, he said. Stating that the system on post-production was weak, Dr Paroda made a call for fortifying it. The corporate sector was already into value addition and there was a need to encourage the farmers to go for this venture for additional benefits, he said. With a lot of agri-challenges being confronted, particularly, water, the present time calls for coming out of routine or traditional agriculture and switching over to alternate crops. “Emphasis should shift from publications to innovations, which should be of relevance for whom we are working,” he remarked.

Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice Chancellor, PAU, while welcoming Dr Paroda and senior faculty of PAU, highlighted University’s accomplishments in research, teaching and extension. He informed about PAU’s digital newspaper ‘Kheti Sandesh’ which has an outreach to nearly 5 lakh farmers. Dr Dhillon also apprised him of the strides made by the University in the cultivation of pulses, fruits and vegetables; food processing; mushroom cultivation; biofertilizers; and transfer of technology.

Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, PAU, while giving a presentation, threw light on newly developed crop varieties/hybrids, farm machinery for ecology and economy, and paddy straw management techniques. He pointed out the wrong notions about Punjab’s agriculture including deterioration of soil health, high use of fertilizers and pesticides, stagnation in crop productivity and decrease in farm income. He claimed that soil organic carbon status of Punjab soils was increasing, implementation of integrated pest management in cotton saved the pesticides to the tune of Rs 54 crore in 2016 kharif season and crop productivity of wheat jumped from 12.4 quintal/hectare (1960-61) to 48 q/ha (2011-12 to 2016-17) and that of paddy from 15.5 to 60.0 q/ha during the same years. The monthly income of agriculture household in Punjab is Rs 18,059, which is more than that of Haryana, he revealed.

Dr R.S. Sidhu, Registrar, PAU, proposed the vote of thanks. Dr Dhillon honoured Dr Paroda with a shawl and presented him a set of PAU publications. The meet was attended by deans, directors, additional directors and heads of the departments of the University.