Natural farming not only solution to chemicals in food: NITI Aayog member

NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand on Tuesday said public perception of growing harmful effects of chemicals in food cannot be addressed by organic farming or zero budget farming alone. Chand said the plant protection industry should play an active role in assuring consumers that all chemicals aren’t harmful and must educate farmers to adopt good farm practices and stop excessive use of chemicals.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Role of Agro-chemicals in Sustainable Farming’ at the 8th Agro-Chemicals Conference, Chand said now that India is a surplus country in many farm products, people are talking about things such as increased use of chemicals in agriculture and how harmful it could be. “When India used to be a country with a shortfall in agricultural production, no one spoke about the harmful effects of chemical farming,” Chand said. 

He said India’s food security was expected to sustain for a long time, as foodgrains production was growing much faster rate as compared to the population growth.