MP seeks Central help to open agriculture varsity

[OrganicABC]

MP seeks Central help to open agriculture varsity

Shashikant Trivedi / New Delhi/ Bhopal December 26, 2009, 0:13 IST

To make Madhya Pradesh an “organic” state in terms of agriculture, the state government has sought support from the Centre on agriculture research.

State agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmaria envisages to open a national-level livestock research centre, one agriculture university, two agriculture colleges and corn and baby-corn processing centres in the tribal-dominated areas, besides a sugarcane research centre. The minister is also learnt to have demanded a floriculture research centre in Indore.

Speaking to Business Standard, a highly placed official said, “The state has forwarded its demand for a centre namely National Kamdhenu Research Centre to the Union government so that it can boost its programme to switch over from chemical fertiliser-based farming to organic farming. Moreover, the department of agriculture has communicated to the Centre that more financial support is needed in opening of one more agriculture university and two new agriculture colleges, particularly in Malwa (western Madhya Pradesh) belt.”

MP has two agriculture universities in Jabalpur and Gwalior and it needs to open one more university in Indore area, which dominates in flowers, soya, wheat and coarse grains.

Similarly, a number of sugarcane processing factories have come up in Narsinghpur (200 Km from Bhopal) but farmers are turning hostile towards sugarcane in absence of research in modern agriculture practices.

“There is a need to open a sugarcane research centre in Narsinghpur-Kareli area so that farmers can grow sugarcane in organic manner with higher output,.” the official said. Kareli (near Narsinghpur is known for its gur (jaggery). A concept of seed certification institute has also been floated by the agriculture minister.