CIPHET celebrated its foundation day by an organizing cultural event

Ludhiana, December 29:



"Judging growth of country by increasing GDP is not correct. The growth of country should be judged from fact how much better we have moved in terms of environment from previous years and how much more food we are able to make available to poorest of poor," this was stated by Dr Anil P Joshi, who got Padam Shree Award in year 2006, for his outstanding service in rural upliftment and environmental conservation. He was here to attend the foundation day of Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET).



Taking different line for GDP as growth indicator, Dr Anil P Joshi said that it was only an indicator of growth of already prosperous people in the country. "Gross environmental productivity should be taken as indicator for the growth of the country. Every year we are polluting and reducing our natural resources. Most of our rivers are getting dried up, air got polluted, soil is getting infertile due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers," he said, adding that if corrective steps were not taken results would be disastrous in near future.



"Few decades back nobody would have imagined that water would be sold in bottles. It might be possible that in near future there might be centers for taking fresh oxygen in highly polluted areas," he added. Dr Joshi said that prosperity in villages could return through self-dependency only. "Earlier, most of the village necessities used to be fulfilled at local level only. Now, they are getting things from cities which otherwise could be processed and grown in villages only. We have tried to implement self-sustainability models in few villages and now they have started producing 75 percent of their requirements at village level only," he said, adding that farmers need to take role scientists to make agriculture sustainable and scientists need to take role of farmer to produce accepatable and appropriate technology.



Emphasizing that people at village level need to upgraded in better skills, Dr Joshi said that they had provided technique to the people in village Parthal near Vashnav Devi to produce "ladoos" from corn for pilgrimages, which was locally available material. Dr R.T Patil, CIPHET Director, said that while national per capita income stays around 750 dollars yearly, most farmers were even below than this income. He said that until scientific methods were not adopted, new generations would not be taking farming as profession leading to overpopulation in cities. On the occasion, CIPHET released its publications and cultural event was also organized to mark the day. Dr S.K Nanda, Project Coordinator (PHT), Dr Deepak Raj Rai, Head Transfer of Technology Division, and all faculty members of the CIPHET were also present on the occasion.



Box: (Awards given to Dr Anil Joshi)

· Padam Shree in year 2006

· Sat Pal Mittal Award in year 2004

· India Science Congress Award in year 1999

· Dr T.N Kshoo Memorial Award in 2006
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