The recently concluded Northeast Agri Expo 2010 has come out with several recommendations which have been worked out after intensive deliberation among the resource persons and the participants/farmers. Everyone concerned would have to take serious note of the recommendations and also make sure that there is follow up. Suggestions are always important as it will help us in reviewing our performance and in the process allow us to adapt/change/accommodate or even correct the flaws in existing policies and programmes. For instance, one of the recommendation calling for “location/specific package and practices for growing newly introduced horticulture crops” as rightly mentioned, needs to be developed especially in the case of Nagaland where we are yet to follow an organized approach. Other suggestions with regard to marketing, crop zoning, government schemes or awareness for farmers etc. will require follow up action. However it should also be mentioned here that we should also not go overboard when it comes to the issue of climate change.
If we give too much emphasis to climate change or put all our blame on it, then we will not move forward when it comes to developing our agrarian sector. In fact it was kind of strange to note that the first recommendation made at the end of the NE Agri Expo was on climate change. As per the proposal put up, “one of the major contributors to the agricultural problems faced by the farmers is climate change” and that the “problem should be looked into in a holistic manner”. We are not suggesting that climate change is unimportant or does not merit Naga people’s concern. In fact climate change is real and we need to look at mitigation efforts. We cannot run away from the problems or the responsibility of climate change. Nevertheless whether it is the farmers or the policy makers we should not get into the habit of using climate change as an excuse for our indolence or failure of our progammes.
While we will continue to face natural disasters from floods to drought, our focus should remain on getting our agriculture sector right. Sometimes our farmers, bureaucrats and politicians it seems are only interested in getting funds from drought or flood relief. This is one of the reasons why our agriculture sector remains under developed despite generous amount of funds made available over so many years. It is therefore somewhat of an irony and at the same time of concern that although Nagaland is basically an agrarian state, we import around 72% of food grains from outside. What has happened to our policies and programmes? It will not be surprising if we start to use climate change to get funds for our misuse. In fact the Government of India has approved an Rs 350 crore scheme to address the issue of climate change. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the scheme, to be implemented in the remaining part of the current Plan period, to address the impact of climate change on agriculture. Hopefully such assistance will be used properly for its intended purpose i.e. on research infrastructure, capacity building and on-farm demonstration of the climate resilient technologies. The point to be made here is this: let us put whatever funds we get in the right places, whether it is to fight climate change, develop our agriculture or build better roads and other infrastructure.
