Agriculture & Food Security
Born and brought up in a farmer family and associated with on farm practices directly in his early part of his life Saryu Roy is we acquainted with miseries of the farmers challenges before the farming before and after globalization and liberalization era. As a journalist also agriculture and allied activities remained special topic of his interest. Besides other aspects of agriculture and food his more concerned with its environmental aspects. The way unabated and unscrupulous use of chemicals as inputs in the process of food production as well as preservation, distribution and marketing of day to day food items are used is matter of big concern and is proving health and environmental hazards. taking alarming. He is actively associated with cause of farm community in particular and human health in general.
Production of food grains, pulses, oil seeds and vegetables has increased in last one decade. Yet it is not self sufficient in food production needed to feed its above 30 million population. Its food import bill is a indirect burden over its financial power. Inefficiency of the state machinery delivery mechanism rubs salt to this injury, as a result large number of population here is forced to live on scars food availability and that too with less nutrient contents.
To make the state self-sufficient in food items serious initiatives needs to be undertaken. A serious effort with regard to bring more and more cultivable land into irrigable category, to maximize the relatively very low irrigation projects efficiency, to raise its land productivity level and to extend the dry land farming practices up to optimum level. The pattern of existing land use pattern also requires a fresh look.
Besides improving the food items production concerned efforts to remove the impurities, to get rid of sub-standard quality products and enhance its basic nutrient components is need of time. Prevalent civic and industrial pollution including of natural resources and increasing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in Jharkhand too impinges adversely upon the quality of food production and livelihood of men and animal wealth. This danger looming large in this perspective requires immediate control and appropriate intervention.
Not only production and productivity also the distribution of food items available for distribution in different schemes also needs to be analyzed and supervised in public interest as well as in the interest of state. A fresh look towards creation and/or strengthening an appropriate institutional mechanism and its synchronization with the space of non govt. participation for meaningful implementation of provision of recently passed food security bill and/or pre-existing regulations is need of the time.
We along with the local panchayat leaders of Namkom Block are practically experimenting in this direction to assess the ground realities on the basis of inputs from various sources. It is one of the recent environmental initiatives undertaken by Yugantar Bharati in the wide field of agriculture and food security with special thrust environmental manifestations, locally and globally, associated with this aspect of economy.