15th Mar 2019 10:03:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

Agriculture has been the mainstay of the country’s economy for decades and the journey has been quite a long one from the days when we had to import food grains to feed the teeming millions. The country at present is not only food self-sufficient at aggregate level, but also a net food exporting country.

 

The success can be attributed to the past strategies with focus primarily on raising agricultural output and improving food security which has resulted in a substantial percent increase in per person food production. But in spite of this huge success, the presence of poverty among farm households and emergence of agrarian distress in the country cannot be overlooked. It is a common observation that the disparity between income of a farmer and non-agricultural worker is not only large, but deteriorating too. It is in this backdrop, a goal has been set to double farmers' income by 2022 to promote their welfare, reduce agrarian distress and bring parity between their income and those working in non-agricultural professions.

 

The day-long training-cum-awareness programme which was organized a couple of weeks back for boosting oilseed production in Namsai, an aspirational district of Arunachal Pradesh is an example of such efforts undertaken to reach the 2022 goal. The farmers were encouraged to adopt the ‘double cropping’ formula to boost their income. Namsai’s case is actually the representative methodology targeted to be replicated all across agricultural India.

 

The goal is challenging, and according to the agricultural experts it is attainable with a balanced mix of strategical development initiatives, technology and a new approach to agricultural reforms. The qualitative and quantitative increase in sources that are directly proportional to growth in output, for example quality seeds, fertilizers and power supply need to be accelerated substantially. Also, area under irrigation as well as area under double cropping should be increased to the desired levels every year on a long term basis.

 

 

If this happens to be the pan Indian picture, Arunachal Pradesh in particular and Northeast in general needs special attention.Northeast is experiencing rapid population growth and Arunachal Pradesh, the largest state in this block is no exception. The anticipated increase in demographic pressure and urbanization are directly interlinked to the issues of food and nutritional security. Besides going ahead with the process of building agri-infrastructures having national level research institutes in state may go a long way where continuous endeavours of the sons & daughters of the soil can aptly complement the state’s agricultural targets.

In a state where more than three-fourth of the population depends on agriculture, for overall development, agriculture is the key.

 


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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