Keeping Abreast

RAPID and unprecedented development of science and technology has left the human kind breathless. The new innovations are a part and parcel of the developed world and they are reaping requisite benefits in their endeavour to raise the standard of their people. But the same has not materialised in a developing and poor country like ours. It might not have been right to say that we lack the potentials but the fact remains that despite the abundance of human and natural resources a majority of the people is still feeling the severe pinches of economic deprivation. Our capacity to adopt new techniques and technology is immense given the will to do so. This is an age when the information communication technology has come to the fore in every field conceivable. This is not to say that having computers by the hundreds or access to Internet will solve all the problems that we are facing at the present times. But, one thing has to be remembered they are at best the tools for achieving what we opt for or have eyes on. As in everything else, the development in other parts of the world has its impact on Nepal also. The need to plan the strategies both on short and long term to utilise the vast potential that the information generated all over the world can be utilised for our own good.

Herein, it may be relevant to mention that Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, while speaking at the concluding session of the second meeting of SAARC Information Ministers at Islamabad, the other day, highlighted the fact that the South Asian region has a large reservoir of resources both natural and human, but they have not been fully utilised for the benefit of the people inhabiting this part of the world. In this connection he further said that the east-west optical fibre network which is in the offing in Nepal might be part of the SAARC information highway. This obviously generates optimism that such a highway would greatly assist the information communication that is so vital for the development of this region as a whole. The cost-effectiveness is a matter to point. In over a decade and half, since the establishment of SAARC, numerous initiatives have been undertaken so that all the countries that comprise South Asia stand to benefit. As expected, the pace has picked up since the 11th SAARC Summit held in January this year. The commitment of all the SAARC countries is there for further enhancing meaningful cooperation among all.

Agro-Fairs & Exhibitions

DURING the three-day agriculture fair-cum-exhibition that concluded in Itahari recently, 126 farmers engaged in different agricultural activities like crop cultivation, floriculture, vegetable and cash crop farming, fishery participated in the exhibition. Similarly, the fair also drew hundreds of farmers who interacted with the exhibitors concerning their respective agricultural products and activities. It needs no reiteration that such fairs-cum-exhibitions can play the role of catalysts in boosting agricultural productions by popularising appropriate crops and technologies among the farmers and in encouraging them to take to other agricultural activities. Nor, for that matter, the need to organise more of such agricultural fair-cum-exhibition throughout the country. For, if over 95 per cent of the population are small farmers, then the vast majority of them are still engaged in growing traditional crops by using obsolete agricultural tools and methods. The very fact that an agricultural nation like Nepal is now having to import large quantities of various foodgrains is a telling indication that the farmers are no more able to coax out more yields from their farms. The shortfalls in yearly productions of assorted grains and crops also prove that if the farmers were to derive maximum benefits from their farms, then they need to forgo their traditional crops, tools and methods—and engage in those agricultural activities that are compatible with the soil, weather and climatic conditions prevailing in their farms and environs.

Needless to point out, it is for this very purpose that the government has established agriculture research centres and farms in various parts of the country to develop high-yielding grains, crops, fruits and technologies necessary to boost their respective yields. Although these agriculture research centres have been contributing their mite in boosting assorted farm outputs by propagating high-yielding varieties of crops among the farmers, that they still have yet to popularise their products and technologies among more farmers can be seen from the current foodgrain-importing status of the nation. As such, while it has become imperative for these agriculture research centres to come up with the requisite schemes to take their products and technologies to the doorsteps of the farmers, considering the inherent potentials of agriculture fairs-cum-exhibitions to propagate newer crops and technologies among their targetted beneficiaries, these centres should team up with concerned national, regional and international agencies to hold more such fairs-cum-exhibitions throughout the nation.