Udupi: 'Krishi Utsav' throws spotlight on village life, rural culture

Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, Feb 2: Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), Krishi Utsav organization, Lions Club International 317 C and Rotary Parkala, in association with other organizations, conducted ‘Krishi Utsav-2013’ at Parkala on Saturday February 2.

The one-day programme had 90 stalls and saw the participation of approximately 5,000 to 10, 000 people. K M Udupa, managing director, Bharatiya Vikas Trust, inaugurated the festival.

Kudi Srinivas Bhat, president, Krishi Utsav organizing committee, presided over the function. Pratapchandra Shetty, MLC, and Upendra Nayak, president, zilla panchayat, were the chief guests.

The festival began with ‘Go Puja’ and was followed by the rituals of a house warming ceremony before the lighting of the lamp. This year’s festival gave more importance to village life and displayed many aspects of our vanishing culture as well as many belongings which a rural family cannot live without.

Udupa said in his speech that the contribution from the government to agriculture and farming was insufficient. “Such functions should be for the common people and not only “from farmers to the farmers”. Krishi Utsav should be a step from the government and not from individual organizations,” he added.

“China is number one in dairy farming and they produce 550 tonnes of milk. India produces only 150 tonnes of milk and the difference is only because of government support. Our farmers are unhappy about the rates they get for their products where the middle man finds an easy way to make profit. This system obstructs agriculture and farming. This should be stopped and farmers should be given more and more education about technology and Krishi Utsav is the right platform for this,” opined Udupa.

He further said that it was a bitter fact that we don’t have sufficient food products to fulfill the requirement of the entire population.

“We have technology, but we should not forget that milk, egg, and other organic products that can be availed only by farming and planting we can’t create artificially. So schools and colleges should also give education on agriculture and help the younger generation understand the importance of farming. We need more financial allocation for farming and the government should set aside a good amount of funds for farming in the upcoming budget,” Udupa added.

There was a display and sale of various items which will be useful to a farmer. Handicrafts, composed items, machinery, Ayurvedic homemade medicines, solar panels, homemade pesticides, tiller grass cutters, vegetable seeds, books and CDs on farming, herbal products, and home remedies for diabetes were available. There were also many portraits and tabloids depicting rural life and culture.

Madhusudan Hegde, Lions president, Gowri Poojarthi, taluk president, Sridevi, president, Badagubettu panchayat, Manjunath Upadyaya, Rotarian, Vasudhev Prabu, principal, Parkala High School, and Durga Gowda, Dharmasthala, were present.