Chandigarh
5 July 2017
DIVYA AZAD
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with the Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, and Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India organised a seminar on Empowering Farmers on scientific use of Crop Protection Chemicals /pesticides for maximization of yield at Chandigarh on July 5th, 2017. The seminar witnessed a panel discussion on empowering farmers with the use of agrochemicals.
The aim of the seminar was to facilitate national food & nutrition security, by empowering farmers with knowledge about role of crop protection chemicals, by bringing to their notice the good initiatives of the Government about the latest technological developments which are sustainable and environment friendly. A knowledge paper was also released by FICCI.
Earlier, Shri Vinay Mathur, Deputy Secretary General, FICCI gave a welcome address and present an overview of the seminar. “Supporting nearly 18% of the global human population and 16% of Cattle population with only 2.4% land and 4% of water being available is indeed a challenging preposition, which is being faced by the Indian farmers. There is a need to facilitate national food and nutrition security. For that to happen, we must empower farmers with knowledge about role of crop protection chemicals, for a sustained growth of Indian agriculture and economy”, he said.
“Judicious use of crop protection helps to protect crops and increases crop productivity by 20-50%. It is the responsibility of agriculture companies and other stakeholders to adequately educate farmers & empower them with knowledge about the correct usage and application of crop protection chemicals for best results.”, said Dr. Ram K Mudholkar, Chairman, FICCI Crop Protection Chemicals Committee and President, DuPont South Asia & Business Director Crop Protection, South Asia.
“FICCI has always had a pro-active approach while contributing their bit to the society, and seminars like these stand testament to the same. Initiatives like multi-cropping, crop rotation, and judicious use of agrochemicals should be taken into consideration”, said Dr. Madhu Gill, Consultant to Government of Punjab, Organic Farming.
“Through the medium of this seminar, we aim to empower the farmers to achieve higher yields and crop protection”, said Mr. G.B. Singh, Regional Head, Regional Council of Punjab, Haryana & Himachal Pradesh-FICCI.
Mr. PS Singh, Head Chemicals & Petrochemicals FICCI, concluded the inauguration ceremony with a vote of thanks.
The technical sessions covered myriad agendas for accelerating the livelihood of farmers, ranging from a panel Discussion on the theme of empowering farmers on scientific use of agrochemicals and initiatives taken by the Government & private industries for Farmers Empowerment.
After all, pesticides are for plants, are what medicines are for human body.
The seminar concluded that, the government, industry & the farmers need to work in tandem to ensure that pesticides are used scientifically in such a way that Indian agriculture as a whole benefits with the resultant fall in crop attacks and increase in crop yields.
