Referring to the increasing agrarian crisis and stressing on the need for utilising trained manpower for agricultural development, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Deputy Director-General of Agricultural Engineering S.N. Jha has suggested that the State government appoint agricultural engineers in each panchayat, block and district in sufficient numbers.
“In agriculture, you have to now give priority to engineering. You need a large number of trained manpower and better implementation and monitoring mechanisms by putting the right people with the right knowledge in the right places. To begin with, I suggest that the government appoint agricultural engineers in each panchayat, block and district headquarter in sufficient numbers and monitor their work from headquarters by establishing a directorate of agricultural engineering. Better planning, project implementation and monitoring are only possible if professionals are at the helm of the affairs. Karnataka deserves to be ahead in this reform as compared to other States in the country,” he said, while delivering his convocation address at the 13th convocation of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, held at the university auditorium in Raichur on Thursday.
Expressing concern over the agrarian crisis driving out large chunks of the farming community out of agriculture in the country, Dr. Jha said that the decreasing number of farmers and the disinterest of young people in traditional farming have a hidden threat to agriculture itself.
