By Himanshu Nitnaware,
AURANGABAD: Farmers of the state need to make efficient use of modern technology to achieve maximum yield from available land. Efficient water and land management, along with technology, were the key for full-scale production in agriculture, said K P Gore, vice chancellor of Agriculture college, Parbhani, here on Sunday.
Speaking at the inauguration of Maha-Agro, he said, "Reducing labour costs to maximize production needed to meet the increasing foodgrain demands of the country."
The exhibit aimed to focus on modernizing the agriculture activities to achieve maximum production, said Vasant Deshmukh, co-organiser of Maha-Agro.
Gore said that the production of grams had doubled in the last forty years in the Marathwada region, while the production of soyabean and rice wheat had increased three times and cotton, six times.
He explained that around 40% of the production cost in agriculture was contributed by the cost of labour and the use of modern technology will help to reduce the production cost by 20%. "Traditional tools and their limitations are a major deterrent in obtaining the maximum agricultural yield," he added.
"86% of the land is non-irrigated in the region which has received less than 25% rainfall in the last four years; and last year, it received less than even 50% rainfall," he informed.
Gore said that around 15% of the water from rainfall was percolated, which could be increased to around 40% through water harvesting in major catchment areas. Around 5,000 hectares of land was being rendered useless due to soil erosion. He also said that subsidiary activities and parallel agricultural activities will help support agricultural production.
Out of the labourers, around 70% of the female labours work on the fields.
"Research is equally important for the farmers to study the soil quality, irrigation supply schemes and weather forecasts which would facilitate agricultural production. Implementation of modern technology, application of different strategies successfully tested by experts and organizing discussion forums to inspire farmers should be the need of the hour, "Gore said.
The agriculture college has started 17 research centres, 34 research schemes for students and 24 central government schemes. "As many as 600 technology ideas, 20 instruments and various programmes for farmers have been conducted by the colleges," he added.
Contradicting the use of modern equipment for agriculture, Congress district chief Keshavrao Autade said, "Farmers with small lands cannot afford to use modern equipment to improve their agricultural yield. It would make more sense to use traditional tools along with modern instruments for optimum utilization of resources."
Autade said that land acquisition for development by government is a major concern among farmers who already have immense pressure to get maximum production from a small piece of agricultural land.
K P Gore said that around 15% of the water from rainfall was percolated, which could be increased to around 40% through water harvesting in major catchment areas. Around 5,000 hectares of land was being rendered useless due to soil erosion.
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