THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state’s transition from a producer state to a consumer state was the saddest development in recent years, Governor P Sathasivam said on Thursday.
Underlining the need for adequate storage facilities for farm produce, he said farmers will pursue their profession only if it is profitable on a regular basis. The Governor was inaugurating VAIGA-2016 - short for Value Addition for Income Generation in Agriculture - a five-day workshop on agro-processing and value-addition organised by the Agriculture Department.
“Most of us do not realise that agriculture involves great risk, because profit and loss are often decided more by irregular climate than by the market,” he said. “Added to this is the perishable nature of the produce, which demands speedy channels of marketing. It is sad that no one sees the loss suffered by farmers and traders when agricultural produce get piled up and unsold due to various reasons,” he said.
Although India ranks second in the production of fruits and vegetables, there is tremendous wastage due to the absence of post-harvest management infrastructure. “In processing of fruits and vegetables, we lag behind even Thailand which processes over 30 per cent of its fruits and vegetables. A recent study of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) had put the post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables at around 15 per cent,” he said.
Kerala needs to ensure an even distribution of cold storage facilities available in the state, he said. Emphasising the importance of value addition, Sathasivam asked the government to upgrade the skills of farmers and ensure a steady flow of practical inputs on new technologies to the farmers. Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar presided over the function. Agriculture Production Commissioner Raju Narayana Swamy and Agriculture Director Biju Prabhakar also spoke.