Tamil Nadu guv wants govt to make use of TNAU to improve farming

Chennai, Nov 1 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Governor, R.N. Ravi has called upon the state government to make full use of the expertise of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) to improve agriculture in the state. He was addressing the 42nd convocation ceremony at the TNAU campus in Coimbatore on Monday.

The Governor who is also the Chancellor of the University said that the government must make optimum use of the Agriculture university and should start considering it as a precious asset. He said the beneficiaries of the research carried out in the TNAU are farmers.

He also called upon the University to be technically competent and emotionally involved in identifying the problems faced by the farmers across the state and called upon for greater cooperation between the University and the farming community.

Governor said that the contribution of TNAU had helped farmers earn Rs 5,029 crore through its crop varieties, Rs 4,863 crore through its management technologies, and Rs 541 crore through farm machinery. He said that in total the university had helped farmers improve their income by Rs 10,443 crore.

The Governor said that preparing farmers for climate change is a major challenge faced by the University and added that changing monsoon patterns, rising sea levels, deadly heatwaves, and intense storms pose threat to agriculture.

He also said that the Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in the recent past launched 35 crop varieties that were developed by institutions under Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR). He also said that these institutions had earlier released 17 biofortified varieties of 8 crops.

The Governor also visited the Research Institute building of the TNAU and interacted with the board members.

Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agriculture Research and Education and Director General of ICAR spoke on the occasion. TNAU Vice-Chancellor, Dr N. Kumar welcomed the gathering and highlighted the achievements of the University during the previous academic year.