Model of public-private coop for rural development needed:Vasan

New Delhi, Dec 27 (UNI) Union Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister G K Vasan today called for evolving a new model of public-private cooperation for rural development to kindle agricultural growth in the country.

Apart from providing for rural infrastructure and developing market channels, the proposed model would aim to bring together producers and agribusinesses, enforce grades and standards and improve investment climate for farmers, he said while delivering the inaugural address at the four-day international conference on Statistics and Informatics in Agricultural Research which opened here this morning.

The event was organised by Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), which was set up on January 3, 1947.

The institute is celebrating its diamond jubilee celebrations.

Noting that every year the country suffers losses due to floods and droughts and also the onset of pest and disease, Mr Vasan said Statistics and Informatics together would prove useful in the Statistical modelling, forecasting and early warning for agricultural systems.

The minister asked statisticians to address the two problems being faced by policy makers of "inadequate, inefficient and unreliable estimates of interest" and lack of timeliness that were hampering effective and proper planning.

Official statistics, he observed, "provide an objective perspective of the changes taking place in national life." He announced on the occasion that two national awards and one international award for outstanding and meritorious research work in Statistics was being implemented by his ministry to encourage quality research in the field of Applied and Official Statistics.

Among those who spoke were Mr S D Sharma, Director, IASRI and Mr Mangala Rai, Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

UNI SD CS DS1350