Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) there are several clauses included to punish cheating and dishonesty. Section 415 to 420 in the Indian Penal Code deals with Cheating and dishonestly of various kinds The maximum punishment which can be awarded is imprisonment for a term of 7 years and fine.
Often business men are booked under these sections. However, there are no such cases against an agricultural scientist who cheats and misguides millions of farmers for his own benefit. I would restrict my examples on how agricultural scientists are cheating the nation by cheating the farmers with false hope or many occasions by putting them in monetary loss due to implementation of false claim of the technology by the scientist. A common citizen must know why country should not think of imposing strong punishment to such unethical scientific workers who use the tax prayer’s money for their research with an oath that they will only perused the truth? In fact some of them do not do so. They falsely claim big thing, which is in fact not, to improve their credential.
Example No 1: Kesar-Safron cultivation in Gujarat (Indian Express Ahmedabad, Fri Mar 22 2013, 03:55 hrs) Produced as such without changing a word
Anand Agricultural University (AAU) has successfully grown saffron under controlled conditions and claims that the most expensive herb in the world could be grown in the fields of the north Gujarat region having favourable climatic conditions for its farming.
The university began its cultivation a year ago with saplings having been brought from Badgam district in Kashmir valley, the only region where saffron is grown in India.
AAU’s biotechnology department head R S Phogat, who carried out the cultivation at university’s farm in Anand, says the saffron can be grown north Gujarat region having temperature of 20-22 degrees and minimum humidity required for flowering of saffron plants in October-November.
Speaking to The Indian Express, he said the saffron produced at the university’s farm at Anand in controlled environment was found to be as good as that of Kashmir, including the chemical content. He said all the plants at the university’s farm gave flowers at par with those in Kashmir and female part of the flower called “stigma” used as commercial product was similar to the one produced in Kashmir.
Stating that the saffron plants can be grown in green houses as well by maintaining the required temperature and providing direct sunlight, he said the climatic condition of the north Gujarat districts of Patan, Mehsana, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar during the period of saffron cultivation — August to November — were very favourable for saffron farming.
He said the herb, which was used as a natural ingredient in preparing food and drinks, could bring good returns to the farmers because of its high cost in the market, which was approximately Rs 2.5 lakh per kg.
Note: What happened to this claim? Country should know from the University authority and the scientist?
Example No2: A new Isabgol variety “Vallabh Isabgol-2” developed by ICAR-DMAPR and identified in workshop (2016) at Solan for national release.
Summary of the Proposal
- Isabgol normally matures in 120-130 days. The development of early maturing (95-105 days) and high yielding varieties will be advantageous as (1) less water requirement (1-2 irrigations lesser than the normal crop), (2) Escaping from disease is due to early flowering and (3) fitting to the various cropping systems. In this direction, the proposed variety DPO-174 (Vallabh Isabgol-2) has been developed through mutation breeding using GI-2 as parent at ICAR-DMAPR, Anand is an early maturing (100-105 days) and high yielding.
- Vallabh Isabgol-2 has given higher seed yield compared to check DPO-14 (9.94% higher). The mean seed yield of DPO-174 was 47 kg ha-1 as compared to 1004.61 kg ha-1 of DPO-14.
- The swelling factor of the proposed variety DPO-174 was 12.16 as compared to DPO-14 (12.56). Husk yield was 156.45 kg ha-1 in DPO-174 which is statistically on par with the check DPO-14 (14 kg ha-1).
- Vallabh Isabgol-2 in contrast to DPO-14 is having erect growth habit with height of 30-35 cm (dwarf), green leaves with sparse pubescence, compact spike arrangement with compressed flower arrangement in the spike.
NOTE: The very basic methodology of multi-location trails for identification of superiority of new test material over and above the already exiting ruling varieties have not been followed in the above case. There were no local check, no national check in the experiments. One registered germplasm was included as check which is not acceptable. This is a clear case of deliberate misleading the farmers for own benefit of improving bio-data.
There are many such examples in NARS. If you just closely observe the individual scientists’ bio-data claim of new varieties, new technologies, new innovations, etc, you will come to know about how tall claims are these.
Why such tall claims of Agricultural Scientists should not come under serious scrutiny and punishment?? These claims obviously misguide and mislead the farmers and also often cause a serious loss of money and efforts. Country cannot continue to move in this manner to achieve doubling the farmers income by 2022 (as proposed by the PM). I can only just pray to God, the biblical promise is true: “The poor ye shall always have with you”.
