1st National Symposium
Dates: 20-21 March 2003
Place: SKUAST(J), Jammu - 180012 (J&K)

Theme: Sustainability of Agriculture Production and Value Addition in the Context of WTO

Sub Theme:

  1. Challenges to Indian Agriculture in the context of WTO.

  2. Production technology in rainfed and hilly areas.

  3. Scenario in development and acceptability of transgenic crops.

  4. Processing of farm produce and value addition under changing market scenerio.

  5. Resource conservation technology in agriculture.

Recommendations

  1. Reduction in production costs, improvement in quality of agricultural produce and processing and storage facilities with infrastructure need priority attention.

  2. Specific land use systems of Western Himalayas must take into account quality and size of land holding, degrading soil fertility, low soil temperature, high rainfall and soil erosion.

  3. Rain-fed areas not suited for crop production, should be developed as pasture and grazing lands for live stock production. This will certainly help in raising the economic status of the farmers.

  4. Farm machinery like seed-cum-fertilizer drill, which help in timely sowing and fertilizer placement, need to be popularized.

  5. The contingent plans for aberrant weather conditions need to be developed well in advance and also some policy issues like improvement in credit availability, extension of crop insurance schemes to rain-fed areas etc. need to be taken.

  6. Benefits should be derived from the advancements in transgenic for insect/pests resistance, reduction in post-harvest losses and development of value-added food products with special reference to improving quantity and quality of oils, proteins and vitamins.

  7. Since the research in the field of genetic engineering and bio-technology is a costly affair, a joint approach for development of transgenic amongst agricultural and traditional universities should be followed.

  8. The research and development should give emphasis on pre-harvest management, primary processing, diversified use of products/bio- products and creation of new markets.

  9. To meet WTO obligations in the years to come, the politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats need to join hands for reduction in cost of production, sustainable production and value addition, so as to cater to the needs of domestic and international market.

  10. Towards resource conservation technology in agriculture, the participatory approach of farmers or warabandi system of irrigation need to be adopted with the help of line departments.