Farmers taking a pledge to preserve natural and organic farming
practices at traditional paddy festival near Tiruthuraipoondi on Sunday.
It is essential to conserve the quality and fertility of
soil than increasing the productivity. Only such a resolve could ensure
sustainable livelihood based on agriculture, experts said at the 10th
national level traditional paddy festival held at Adirangam near here on
Sunday.
Speaking at the workshop, Agriculture
Officer from Kovilpatti Poochi N. Selvam said that there were 22,292
traditional native paddy strains in the country till some decades back.
Almost all of them have been lost due to deplorable chemical farming
practices. In our quest for feeding the burgeoning population through
increasing productivity, we have lost the wonderful native paddy strains
forever. Instead of enriching the soil, it would be better if farmers
save the soil fertility than trying to increase productivity.
Natural
farming expert Dr. Uma Maheswari of Karaikal said that more diseases
were caused by food due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides during the cultivation stage.
Use of organically produced rice and vegetables could play a vital role in ensuring a stress-free life.
Nutrition
and dietetics expert M. Menaka of Ethiraj College, Chennai, urged the
participants to consume red rice, minor millets, pulses and organically
grown vegetables. She noted that maappillai samba rice variety must be
consumed before marriage, kavuni variety after marriage, poongaroo rice
during pregnancy and child birth while lactating mothers must consume
paalkuda vaarai rice.
When
the infant grows to be six months old, waaran samba rice variety could
be fed while kaattu yaam variety rice greatly helped in joint related
disorders, Prof. Menaka said adding people must generally avoid taking
wheat and maida products such as parotta.
PWD
Superintending Engineer R. Elangovan rued that the society has not
concentrated on conserving water bodies. In 67 places across Tamil Nadu,
bus stands have been constructed on water bodies. In fact, the Madurai
Bench of the Madras High Court itself was constructed after levelling a
huge tank. If the trend continued then water scarcity might become acute
in future. Farmers must come forward to preserve water bodies in their
interest.
Coordinator Nel Jayaraman, CREATE trust
chairman Ponnambalam, project coordinator K. Suresh Kanna made elaborate
arrangements for the festival.
All participants took a pledge to preserve organic and natural farming practices besides conserving environment.
Source : The Hindu
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