Scheduled to be held on 15-16 Nov-2019
Venue: SAMETI-West Bengal, Narendrapur, Kolkata.
About the Seminar
World population is projected to increase to 9 billion by2050. By 2022 India will become the most populous country in the world surpassing China and it is going to be the 3largest economy in the world by 2030 accompanied by arise in urbanization levels which will lead to a change in dietary needs. To accommodate this huge population, food production has to be increased and that too from the declining available cultivable land resource. Besides,climate change is another factor influencing the agriculture by alteration of a biotic stress, in return changes of biotic stress too. So, sustainable production and increasing productivity of existing agricultural land is an important aspect to address global food security. The Green Revolution towards the beginning of 1970s had major economic effects in terms of the production and productivity.Use of crop hybrids, agrochemicals, fertilizer and increasing irrigation facilities led India from a food deficient country to a food surplus economy. But Indian agriculture isstill grappling with a number of challenges like high monsoon dependency, unpredictable weather patterns,reduction in arable land, low per hectare yield, increase in pest attack, lower farmer incomes etc. Approximately 25%of the global crop output is lost due to attacks by pests,weeds and diseases and thus agro-chemicals have an increasing role to play in enhancing crop productivity. But,on the contrary, issues like soil degradation, declining soilbiota, residue, resurgence, resistance, eco-system disruption, health hazards etc. and above all awareness on’safe food’ is becoming relevant. Recently, the issue of colony collapse disorder in honey bee assumed to because due to excessive use of neo-nicotinoids insecticides raised a controversy regarding use of agro-chemicals. So far as consumption of pesticides in global scenario is concerned India is using much less amount of pesticides (0.6 kg a.i./h) as compared to China’s 17 kg,Japan’s 12.5 kg, Germany’s 3.7 kg, France’s 3.7 kg and UK’s 2.8 kg. Determining the balance between benefit and harm from pesticide use is complicated because it has been argued that the use of pesticides, broadly, has increased the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables and consequently has improved public health, in spite ofthe potential adverse health effects. It is obvious that there are no potent alternative for Indian agriculture for sustaining or increasing production to feed the population except use of agro-chemicals. Only we have to restrain thefaulty or excessive use of agro-chemicals which may lead towards food security without major disruption of ecosystem. In this backdrop relevant contributions are invited from the agriculture scientists, scholars, technologists, industry and policy planners in its call for the National Seminar on“AGRO-CHEMICAL INPUTS AND IT’S EXTENSION
APPROACHES TOWARDS FOOD Security AND BIO-SAFETY: PROSPECTS & CHALLENGES”.
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