Vice-President calls for transfer of technology to field

Bangalore, Apr 13 (UNI) Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today regretted that technologies developed were not reaching the farming community, thus affecting agriculture production in the country.

Delivering his convocation address at the 41st convocation of the University of Agricultural Sciences here, he said the wealth of information from agricultural research and development failed to reach where it was needed the most. The knowledge deficiency, therefore, hindered agriculture productivity.

''With globalisation, it is imperative to appropriately reorient agricultural education and research system. Quality education holds the key to technology development. We need to create centres of excellence for generation of cutting-edge technologies, without which we shall not be in a position to have international leadership. Universities like this must be centres of excellence in agricultural research and development,'' he added.

Lamenting that agriculture growth had plummeted to around 2.7 per cent in the recent years as against the growth target of four per cent, the Vice-President said that ''for sustaining overall economic growth of nine per cent and above, and reducing poverty on a long-term basis, we need to achieve agricultural growth of at least four per cent annually. This is going to be a formidable challenge that we have got to face and overcome successfully.'' Agriculture growth was not just about increasing the yield and income, but the key issue was to ensure overall welfare of the farmers, he added.

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