Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari emphasized the need for more effective collaboration, coordination and communication among various research organizations and laboratories as well as among their stakeholders. According to him, this is necessary in order to harness the power of ideas and transfer the knowledge created by these institutions to the last person in society. The minister said this today, August 27, 2022, while celebrating the 46th foundation day of the National Land Survey and Land Use Planning Authority in Nagpur. The Bureau is an independent institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), entrusted with the mission of conducting and promoting research in the National Agricultural Research System in the fields of soil surveying, pedology, geomorphology, remote sensing, geographic information system, cartography, soil evaluation and land use planning.
The Union Minister noted that agricultural production per acre in India is very low compared to global standards. The quality of our fruit is also not good enough by international standards. The minister explained that the challenge is how to effectively make the right and appropriate knowledge available to the last man. “Knowledge about soil, seeds, soil, water, fertilizer selection and good farming practices should be imparted to farmers in villages using regional language and media such as short films and through local agricultural colleges and universities. This will help increase agricultural productivity. Our economy is based on water, land, forest and animals. So when the fruits of research are used by the last person, then knowledge and research become truly meaningful.”
The minister suggested that the National Bureau of Land Surveying and Spatial Planning could work with agricultural universities in each region to study the quality of the soil in the region and advise farmers on how to improve the agricultural productivity of the region. “We have to deal with the difficulties of transforming technology and knowledge. We can increase crop productivity if we work using a coordinated approach. For example, we are unable to export 80% of our oranges because of their small size; such problems can be solved by working together.” The minister said that once we understand water, land, soil and climate and how they interact, we will be able to improve our performance.
The minister suggested that at a time when the capacity of government laboratories is insufficient, the private sector should be involved. “Since we were facing shortage of orange seedlings, I suggested that private nurseries can be engaged to make up the supply gap, provided they follow the rules suggested by ICAR.”
The minister emphasized the need to share knowledge in order to fully utilize its potential. “Government systems sometimes fail to motivate organizations to share the knowledge they have. Knowledge should be shared and its impact audited. Not only the financial audit is important, but also the performance audit. Shri Gadkari cited the example of how lithium-ion battery technology mastered by ISRO was not taken up in time by the Indian Automotive Research Association as an example of how we can improve if we improve our coordination and cooperation systems.
The minister emphasized the need to adopt new technologies and research procedures. He narrated how the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways produces concrete roads without the use of aggregates using soil stabilization techniques. This technique was recently used in Andaman, he informed. He gave another example of organic carbon. “We know that organic carbon is important to increase corn productivity, but we need to learn how to increase the extent of organic carbon in our country. For example, will soil quality standards be changed by spraying chemicals with drones.”
Acknowledging the contribution of the National Land Survey and Town Planning Authority in Nagpur for the development of the country, the minister emphasized that we need to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector on which the majority of the population depends. “We need to increase our agricultural growth rate to at least 22%. Then we will have Aatma Nirbhar villages, smart villages. This will benefit the villages, farmers and the poor; In rural areas, new jobs, schools, hospitals, agricultural industries and irrigation facilities will be created to transform our villages.
NBSS&LUP is headquartered in Nagpur and is one of the ICAR chain of institutes. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Task Force on Land and Soil Resources (1972) which suggested the need for soil correlation, uniform nomenclature and proper soil mapping and also the Presidential Notification dated 15 December 1973, the responsibilities of research, training of NBSS&LUP were assigned correlation, classification, mapping and interpretation.
