Sustainable use of bio-resources controlls food, fuel crisis: Expert

Envisaging deep food and fuel crisis and spiralling inflation, noted Agriculture Scientist M S Swaminathan has maintained that the country could beat them only through sustainable and equitable use of bio-resources and by blending traditional knowledge with frontier technology.

With prices of all commodities going up across the world, the country needed to concentrate on achieving food security based on home grown food and ensuring livelihood security for the over 60 per cent of the population dependent on agriculture, he said, while delivering a lecture here last night in memory of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member late Koratala Satyanarayana.

Showing the pathway to achieve evergreen revolution, he stressed the need for undertaking organic agriculture and conserving farming with the help of integrated pest management, nutrient supply and natural resource management systems and use of permitted gentically modified varieties. Se said, in order to produce 100 mt of wheat by 2015, the country should increase average yield of 4.1 per hectare from 25 million hectares and tap large untapped land in the country. In every state areas with untapped agricutlural potential should be developed into Special Agricultural Zones, he added.

He wanted Constitution of National Rainfed Area Authority to work out alternative cropping strategies, seed reserves to implement contingency plans and also promote rural climate managers and set up computer-aided knowledge centres. He also underlined the need for enlarging food basket by including neglected coarse grains which had high nutritional value to redress ''hidden hunger'' and enhance sustainable income, food and nutritional securiy.

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