INDIA 'Poor storage wastes 10% of agricultural produce'

'Poor storage wastes 10% of agricultural produce' 

The National Seed Congress held in Lucknow dwelt on major issues related to agriculture, most important being production of genetically modified (GM) crops and high yielding variety of seeds. On the concluding day of the Congress, UP's minister for Agriculture and Food Processing, Anand Singh supported GM crop production and sought directions from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is said to be still weighing his options.

The CM was the chief guest at the sixth edition of the congress which was hosted in Uttar Pradesh for the first time. "Samajwadi Party is ensuring that farmers receive good quality seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facilities to increase their production. Government is giving priority to soil testing so that the production capacity of the farmland may increase", said Yadav.

The minister emphasised on the need of good research work to prevent crops from diseases and disseminating useful information on agriculture to the farmers. Making a passing reference to the new agriculture technologies including GM crops, he said that the recent researches and technologies can only be accepted by farmers when they start believing it and its benefits to their crops.

Anand Singh said UP is a leading producer of wheat, potatoes and sugarcane but the state still needs to improve in production of oilseeds and lentils. He said almost 10% of the agricultural produce gets damaged due to poor storage facilities in UP. "While we lead pre-harvest stage of production, we need to better our post-harvest facilities in order to match global standards."

UP Seed Development Corporation, one of the organizers of the event assured that it is working towards development of good quality seeds which is a priority for the state government.

In UP, agriculture constitutes 25% of the GDP and gives livelihood to almost 68% people.

Agriculture Production Commissioner, UP, Alok Ranjan said the agriculture growth rate has been targeted at 5.1% in the 12th five year plan, hence all possible efforts are being made to provide high quality seeds to farmers. He said the government has prepared a seed rolling plan for wheat cultivation in the state in which development of new variety of seeds will be encouraged. In this plan, breed which is less than 10 years old will be promoted while breed which is older than 15 years of age would be phased out.

Atanu Purkayastha, joint secretary, ministry of agriculture made concluding remarks in the event that the state needs to strengthen it seed certification and seed-law machinery. Also, well-trained staff and testing labs on global standards are required to develop high yielding variety of crops, he added. TOI