Call to brand State’s organic agriculture Ajit Patowary GUWAHATI, Jan 4 – The organic agriculture of the State needs to be branded for economic uplift of the people of this part of the globe. This was the observation made by Prof Anil Gupta, one of the leading innovation experts of the country.
The renowned innovation expert has also called for steps to sustain the spirit of hospitality of the State’s people alongside the steps to improve their economic condition.
While talking to The Assam Tribune Prof Gupta also laid emphasis on massive decentralized knowledge-based entrepreneurship to solve large-scale unemployment and alienation of the youth from the mainstream. For, these are the prime conditions that are breeding insurgency in the State, said Prof Gupta.
The State and other parts of the NE region should also have a network of modern science and technology with institutions like Indian Council of Medical Research, Centre for Industrial and Scientific Research etc, he said.
Prof Gupta teaches the GRIT course on Innovative Transformation of India at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad with former President APJ Abdul Kalam as one of his colleagues.
Also the founder of the Honey Bee Network that has unleashed a 20-year-old countrywide campaign to recognise grassroot innovation and traditional knowledge in search of alternative survival strategies, Prof Gupta was in the State for the past seven days.
He was here in connection with the 24th Anveshan or Shodh (exploration) Yatra in Dhemaji district to explore the traditional knowledge and grassroot innovation of the people of the district. The Honey Bee Network, National Innovation Foundation and the voluntary organisation SRISTI have jointly organised the Yatra.
Agriculture in places like Dhemaji district is primarily organic. Over 95 per cent of the agricultural produce of the district is organic. The district has a wide variety of paddy, erica, banana and many other crops. All these need to be branded for commercial purposes for economic uplift of the people, said Prof Gupta.
It needs mention here that by default, about 80 per cent of the State’s agricultural areas is under organic farming. Only about 20 per cent of the tilling land of the State is under non-organic cultivation.
According to official sources, the State Agriculture Department has now initiated a move to cover an area of around 5,000 hectares under planned organic farming for certification under the National Project on Organic Farming. About 50 per cent of the baseline survey undertaken for the purpose is now complete.
The move intends to cover around 15,000 farmers in the districts of Lakhimpur, Baksa (Tamulpur), Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Udalguri, Nagaon, Kamrup and Goalpara (Dudhnoi). The Central Government has already released an amount of Rs 15 lakh as initial an installment for execution of the programme.
Schools: The schools of Dhemaji district have wonderfully talented children. For, Prof Gupta said, though the schools are found to be lacking in basic infrastructure and they do not have even the charts on their walls, many school children from the district have been able to take part in the National Children’s Science Congress.
Every school in this part of the country should develop a village knowledge register so that erosion of traditional knowledge could be prevented.
Traditional healthcare: Prof Gupta maintains that the knowledge of traditional health practices among the people of Dhemaji district is very rich. There is a huge scope for industries of herbal drug, dye and food preservatives in the district.
Thrashing: However, Prof Gupta has observed that the farmers of Dhemaji district have been doing their thrashing with the application of about 1,000-year-old methods. They have no foot-propelled thrasher.
Innovative machines: But, the people of the district have some very interesting wooden lathe machines for making furniture, including a cycle-paddled one. This generated keen interest among the participants of the Shodh Yatra, who included 85 participants from across the country and from South Korea, Ireland and Germany. Some of them are acclaimed innovators.
Students from several IITs and many other leading institutions of the country also took part in the Yatra, which ended yesterday after a six-day programme.
