RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on June 20 laid importance on organic- and ancient methods of farming and said it would be wrong to reject such local knowledge as unscientific without examining them.
He was speaking at the annual 'Convocation-cum-Scientific Convention' jointly organised by National Academy of Veterinary Sciences (India), New Delhi and Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur.
Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala, who was the guest of honour, was bestowed honorary fellowship along with Mr. Bhagwat and State Minister Sunil Kedar at the event.
India's farming and animal husbandry methods are the oldest, Mr. Bhagwat said, adding that modern science has side effects but our ancient knowledge and methods do not have side effects. "Focus must be on flexibility in research and use of local knowledge. It is wrong to reject local knowledge by terming it unscientific. You can reject it after examining it, you are free to reject it if it is not right," he said at the event.
"Secondly, mechanised farming would not last long. Even today, 65% farmers cultivate on small land holdings and mechanised farming is not very beneficial for them. Because of fertilizers etc, he [farmer] falls into debt and then commits suicide. He should be taught sustainable agriculture which he can understand," the RSS chief said.
He stressed on "Bharat centric" method of farming, which can increase our GDP, adding that the country was the number one economy in the world till 1700 AD. "We had agrarian economy that time and industry and commerce were also related to agriculture. We will need to have Bharat centric approach to achieve this [increasing GDP]," he said.
The RSS chief said there was need for public partnerships for sustainability as the government was not rich enough to provide funds for all departments. He also spoke on the "language block" being faced by farmers, stating that most information on animal husbandry was in English.
"The new education policy has included the use of local language in technical subjects. We need to spread this knowledge in local languages," Mr. Bhagwat said.
