TIRUPATI: Some scientists and researchers from various states participating in the second day of the Annual Group Meeting on castor, sunflower, sesame and niger at Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) here on Friday, hoped that better days would come for the average Indian farmer, who was standing at the cross road, for a good remunerative prices.
Indian Institute of Oil seeds Research, Hyderabad, Principal Scientist, Ramesh, said that organic farming whether it is vermi-compost- based or Zero-Based Natural Farming (ZBNF) depending on cow is suitable for food crops such as vegetables, rice and others, since there are no residues as chemicals. He said that European countries are importing only organic food grains and agricultural products.
Speaking on ZBNF, Ramesh said that it is situation and location-specific and cannot be generalised. “In Himachal Pradesh, farmers are not using chemicals at all. Sikkim is totally organic. When it comes to cotton, which we are not consuming directly, we should go for non-organic that is chemical farming,” he said.
For commercial crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, rice and wheat there is an intermittent management method, which is a judicious combination of organic and chemical. SS Lakshman, sunflower farmer from West Bengal, said that by 2050 implementation of chemical farming will come down by 50 per cent in India. He said that in West Bengal, 80 per cent of the farmers are depending on inorganic farming but they are trying to witness a shift from inorganic to organic farming by extending financial and technical support to the farmers.