{"id":6009,"date":"2020-01-30T18:13:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T12:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=6009"},"modified":"2020-01-30T18:13:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T12:43:21","slug":"role-of-civil-society-in-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/role-of-civil-society-in-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Role of Civil Society in Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Economy: Agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Civil.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6012\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Civil.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"638\" height=\"479\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Agriculture of today is witnessing several sustainable initiatives by farmers to improve farming techniques and to prop up their livelihoods and income.<br \/>\n\u2022 Government too has, in a way, recognized this changing landscape of agricultural development. The recent conferment of Padma Shri awards to 12 such farmer-leaders in 2019 is a case in point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Civil-society.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6011\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Civil-society.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"682\" height=\"449\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Innovation in Agriculture:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Farmers play pivotal role in improving technology and productivity. The achievements of some of the<br \/>\nawardees endorse this hypothesis.<br \/>\n\u2022 One of the Padma Shri awardee farmer, Vallabhbhai Vasambhai Marvaniya, has been doing<br \/>\ninnovation in carrot farming since late 1940s in Junagadh of Gugrat.<br \/>\n\u2022 Subsequently, he developed \u2018Mudhuvan-Gajar\u2019. The Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute<br \/>\ntested this variety and endorsed its cultivation.<br \/>\n\u2022 Experimenting with cauliflower cultivation since 1970, Jagdish Prasad Parikh from Rajasthan<br \/>\ndeveloped \u2018\u201dAjita Nagar Selection\u2019 variety for better size and quality.<br \/>\n\u2022 It can be cultivated without much chemical use and the crop tolerates heat waves conditions.<br \/>\n\u2022 Sultan Singh demonstrated use of re-circulating aquaculture systems (RAS) for fish cultivation<br \/>\nin adverse climate with very limited use of water in Karnal of Haryana.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/civil-so.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6010\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/civil-so.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"444\" height=\"348\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Minimizing Chemical Use:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reducing chemical use by following organic methods of agriculture has been the focus of many of<br \/>\nthese awardees. They also organize training for farmers on best agricultural practices and on ways<br \/>\nfor preserving local cultivars of several crops.<br \/>\n\u2022 They encouraged fellow farmers to adopt better agronomic practices by demonstrating virtues of<br \/>\nintercropping and crop rotation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Diversification of Agriculture:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some of these awardees moved against traditional cropping pattern. Rajakumari Devi (Bihar) experimented with food crops in place of mono-cropped tobacco.<br \/>\n\u2022 She promoted innovative agronomical methods of cultivation as per the terrain with the knowledge of soils, value addition and marketing.<br \/>\n\u2022 A desert like area around Hulikal village of Ramnagar in Karnataka was transformed to green belt by the dedicated efforts of Saalumarada Thimmakka by growing more than 8000 trees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Shifting Consumption Patterns:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As the priority shifts from food security to nutrition security, the focus of the policy makers is moving<br \/>\ntowards micro-nutrient dense foods like minor millets and pulses, often called \u2018orphan crops.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Government of India declared 2018 as the National Year of Millets for promoting cultivation and consumption of these foods. It re-designated coarse cereals like sorghum, pearl millet, finger<br \/>\nmillet, and minor millets as nutria-cereals in 2018.<br \/>\n\u2022 All this is in the \u2018Decade of Action on Nutrition\u2019 (2016-25) as per the United Nations under SDGs.<br \/>\n\u2022 Research has to focus on increasing the productivity of minor millets that has been stagnant<br \/>\nsince the sixties.<br \/>\n\u2022 Therefore, huge task lies ahead for the development community that includes civil society, researchers, and the Government alike in fostering a level-playing field for minor millet farmers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Urban Agriculture through Terrace Gardening:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is desirable to produce as much as possible using urban agriculture methods.<br \/>\n\u2022 The most crucial of the urban agriculture is the rooftop gardening that can make use of unused open<br \/>\nspaces to provide food for the family, apart from reducing carbon load on environment.<br \/>\n\u2022 While there are plenty of hobbyists and family-and-friends farmers, neither the Governments nor the non-profit organizations have recognized the full potential or need of the process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The activities of these Padam Shri awardees has to be viewed as a trend of emerging private initiatives in various parts of the country in the challenging area of agricultural extension.<br \/>\n\u2022 These private initiatives have to be tailor- made to the welfare needs of masses and adopt a practical<br \/>\napproach to agriculture diffusing good agricultural practices suited to disparate agro-ecological zones.<br \/>\n\u2022 Their efforts will achieve better results when they work in tandem with governmental and quasigovernmental agencies on addressing key challenges of the times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Economy: Agriculture Introduction: Agriculture of today is witnessing several sustainable initiatives by farmers to improve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,42,43],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-6009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-studies-ii","category-general-studies-iii-technology-economic-development-bio-diversity-environment-security-and-disaster-management","category-indian-economy","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6013,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6009\/revisions\/6013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}