Doctorate to agriculture scientist Palekar shelved

Bapatla: The State government's move to honour Subhash Palekar, father of organic farming, brought to the fore the alleged nexus between the scientists and corporate companies who minting money on fertilisers and pesticides. The probable showdown between the pro and anti- groups of Palekar is averted following the government's decision to drop the proposal in the wake of strong resistance from agriculture scientists and students, at a convocation scheduled to be held agriculture college at Bapatla in Guntur district on Monday.

• State govt’s move to honour Subhash Palekar who bats for natural farming, has exposed the nexus between scientists and corporate companies, say pro-Palekar groups
• With students, scientists and academicians of Agriculture university of Bapatla holding protest to honour organic farming expert, govt decided to drop it
• Left associated unions even accused him of promoting Hindutva ideology in the guise of organic farming

Professor Veerendra Nathan, a spokesman of the NG Ranga agriculture university at Lam, talking to The Hans India, confirmed about the varsity’s students decision to backtrack from honouring Palekar at the convocation on September 26 Born in Belora of Vidarbha region in Maharastra, Subhash Palekar, who completed his graduation in agriculture science, pioneered in nature farming with zero-budget cultivation and curb the use of fertilisers and pesticide and he already bagged Padma Sri award for his commendable work.

Apparently, he earned the wrath of academics and scientists engaged in teaching and research in agriculture with his jeering remarks at a two-day government-sponsored training programme on nature farming in Tirupati recently. He was quoted as having said that agricultural science, research and extension services are only intended to serve the corporate interests by promoting indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture.

He further said the promotional campaign began showing harmful effects on food consumers, while landing the farmers in high-cost cultivation. Forcing the scientists and academics boycotted the session in protest against the Palekar’s remarks. However, after training programme, the university has resolved to honour him with a doctorate in line with the government’s decision which triggered protests by students, academics and employees of the university.

In fact, a delegation of scientists and academicians are planning to meet Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with a request to revisit the decision. “After all, Palekar made it clear that he has no belief in agriculture science. Then obviously it is meaningless to honour him by the agriculture university”, said its retired professor Gogineni Veerendranath. The protest assumed political overtones with the peasant organisations with affiliations to the Left parties joining the issue.

These organisations suspect that the cow-based agriculture and natural farming are being campaigned by Subhash Palekar with the backing of the Hindutva outfits like the Rastriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. Poola Peddireddy, president of the CPI (M)-affiliated Andhra Pradesh Rytu Sangham stated that his organisation will not keep quite if the TDP government will indulge in glorifying the icons of Hindutva ideology under the influence of its alliance with the BJP government at the Centre. Adding fuel to the fire, anti-Palekar campaigners hit the social media platforms like the WhatsApp, opposing doctorate for him.

Even though, B Kumara Swamy, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a peasant organisation with pro-RSS moorings, defended Palakar, saying the latter was striving hard to help farmers to reduce their cultivation cost by discouraging use of expensive fertilisers and pesticides, besides promoting healthy food for consumers. He suspected a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by the mighty fertilisers and pesticide companies in the anti-Palekar campaign.

Even Guduru Veeraprasad, former Assistant General Manager of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) supported the Palekar’s campaign for organic farming, while expressing serious anguish over politicising the issue of awarding doctorate for him. It is high time every farmer should go the Palekar’s way to make agriculture viable and sustainable and save people from consuming food containing high levels of harmful residues of pesticides and fertilisers.