Providing access to information holds the key to alleviate rural poverty, says Ansari

Dindigul (Tamil Nadu), Oct.28 (ANI): Vice President Hamid Ansari on Thursday said that the key to alleviate rural poverty was to ensure access to information and enable seamless communication on a wide range of themes.

"The key to alleviating rural poverty is to ensure access to information and enable seamless communication on a wide range of themes including businesses, farming practices, government policies, health and education issues and the rights and obligations of citizens," he said.

Addressing at the 28th Convocation of Gandhigram Rural University at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, the Vice President Ansari said the agriculture sector is not immune from the knowledge-centric economy of today.

"We live in a world where even manual labour is best optimized through knowledge-based processes. Gandhian approaches towards rural development and the agriculture sector would also need to be integrated into our knowledge economy for realizing their objectives."I am glad that Gandhigram Rural University has taken the initiative in transforming itself into a rural knowledge hub to empower farmers and rural citizens to make optimum use of new rural and agricultural technologies," he said.

The Vice President, in his address, said agricultural research must focus on commodities that are relevant to the rural poor and on the conditions under which they produce these agricultural commodities.

Policy makers, R and D institutions and academia, Ansari said, should pay close heed to some of the recommendations made by the Mid-Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Plan to accelerate agricultural growth and revitalize agricultural research. (ANI)