LUDHIANA
\nThe extension system can play an active role in preventing farmer suicides in the state, said Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), while addressing the faculty of PAU today. The Krishi Vigyan Kendras located in different districts of Punjab can contribute vitally in this direction, he suggested. Dr Dhillon further observed, \u201cDespite increase in monthly income of agricultural household in Punjab, improved yield and soil health, farmers\u2019 suicides are rising.\u201d Voicing concern over this serious issue, he called upon the faculty of PAU to participate in the mission of preventing suicides among farmers. It may be mentioned that a research project \u201cUtshah\u201d is also underway in the Department of Agricultural Journalism, Languages and Culture, PAU. Dr Sarabjeet Singh, Professor of Journalism, is a Principal Investigator (PI) of the project, which aims at preventing farmer suicides by promoting simplicity in life, drug free lifestyle and developing positive thinking.<\/p>\n
Dr Sarabjeet Singh, while briefing about his project \u201cUtshah,\u201d said PAU is a lead institution in this project along with three other Universities including Telangana Agricultural University, Hyderabad; Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani, and Punjabi University, Patiala. He stated, \u201cThrough this project, PAU has shown hope to the farmers in distress.\u201d He informed the project will lay emphasis on life skills awareness campaign, selection of student volunteers, baseline survey, designing of customized modules dealing with hopelessness, helplessness, financial distress, etc. Dr Singh lauded PAU VC for suggesting the involvement of NGOs, corporates and philanthropists, in preventing suicides and helping suicide victims.<\/p>\n
Dr Sukhpal Singh, Head, Department of Economics and Sociology, PAU, said, \u201cSuicide is a complex phenomena associated with economic, social and psychological distress of a victim.\u201d The crisis is more prevalent in cotton belt of Punjab, he disclosed, adding that Barnala, Sangrur and Sri Muktsar Sahib districts were worst hit. The year 2008 witnessed maximum framers\u2019 suicides, he told. Increase in cost of inputs, decline in farm employment, non-productive use of loan, expensive social sector and high rate of interests contribute to distress, he observed. Cooperative farming, skill development and employment generation, education and health rate facilities at reasonable rates, enhancement in income, fixing of MSP with actual land rent or charging one-third rent of farm produce, etc. can pave way for stress free life.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Dr R.S. Sidhu, Registrar, welcomed the VC and the faculty. He said, \u201cIn addition to laying thrust on farmer suicide prevention, the University has been contributing to swatchta.\u201d He exhorted the faculty to maintain cleanliness in the University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LUDHIANA The extension system can play an active role in preventing farmer suicides in the state, said Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), while addressing the faculty of PAU today. The Krishi Vigyan Kendras located in different districts of Punjab can contribute vitally in this direction, he suggested. Dr Dhillon further observed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-punjab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6830,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions\/6830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}