Though several technologies are available to farmers today, the main problem is lack of proper communication and dissemination of information to them.

“Only easy accessibility to information can make a farm technology popular. Development and dissemination of technologies play an important role in achieving food production and security,” says Dr. V.A. Parthasarathy, former Director, Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), Kozhikode, Kerala.

“Many farmers still practise traditional/conventional agriculture and are either not aware or not prepared to make use of proper and advanced technologies to increase their yields,” he adds.

Friendly approach

IISR takes a lot of efforts to ensure personal interaction between scientists and farmers to demonstrate and disseminate the various expertise it develops to farmers in their fields. Such demonstrations motivate the farming community and result in quick adoption of technologies, according to him.

The institute bagged the prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Institution award for the second time recently.

Mr. N. N. Chandrasekhar, a cardamom planter from Kodagu, talks about his personal experience as to how well he utilised experts' advice and harvested a substantial yield.

The planter initially inherited 25 acres and adopted coffee-based cropping system with black pepper as intercrop in 16 acres, and a local cardamom variety called Mazarabad in eight acres.............click for more

Source: The Hindu

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