The State Government should make optimum use of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to improve agriculture, Governor-Chancellor R.N. Ravi said in Coimbatore on Monday at the University’s 42nd convocation.
The Government should start looking at the University as a precious asset because the latter’s beneficiaries were farmers. It should make optimum use of the institution and respond to its difficulties and concerns.
The University, in turn, should be technically competent and emotionally involved in identifying problems of farmers from across the State, he said and called for greater cooperation between the two.
Preparing farmers for the impact of climate change was a challenge the University faced. Changing monsoon pattern, rising sea level, deadly heat wave and intense storms posed threat to agriculture.
As a first step to tackle the challenge, the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently launched 35 crop varieties developed by ICAR institutions. It had earlier released 17 biofortified varieties of eight crops.
Mr. Ravi said he was happy to note that the University’s contribution towards increasing farmers income was Rs. 10,443 crore a year. The University had helped farmers earn Rs 5,029 crore through its crop varieties, Rs. 4,863 crore through management technologies and Rs. 541 crore through farm machineries.
Department of Agricultural Research and Education Secretary and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Trilochan Mohapatra said the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University stood first among state agricultural universities in generating revenue. It had earned Rs. 125 crore while other universities earned only less than Rs. 78 crore.
It was time to focus on logistics, storage and transportation of agricultural produce as the country had attained self-sufficiency in production. They were crucial for transforming agriculture into a profitable venture, as farmers at present suffered Rs. 92,651 crore loss a year due to post-harvest losses.
Mr. Mohapatra also said it was time for the University to devise strategies for better use of rain water for agriculture. It should respond to Mr Modi’s call for ‘more crop per drop’ and also take steps to develop new technologies in drip irrigation and fertigation because 45% land under cultivation in the State was rain-fed.
It was all the more necessary for the University to work on water management because the per capita availability of water that was 5,000 cubic feet in the 1950s had come down to 1,500 cubic feet.
He congratulated the Vice Chancellor and faculty for taking the University from the 33rd position to 8th position in the university rank list.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Vice Chancellor N. Kumar welcomed the gathering and highlighted the University’s achievements in the last year.
As many as 2,602 candidates received gold medal and 45 gold medals and awards from Governor Mr. Ravi.
A University release said the Governor later visited the historic Research Institute building and interacted with members of the Board of Management.
