New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) celebrated its 23rd Foundation Day here on Wednesday. An e-Learning platform, 'Sustainable Action and Virtual Education' (SAVE) for an Appreciation Programme on Sustainability Science was launched to mark the occasion.

Two special booklets were also published. One of the booklets was titled 'IGNOU in Printline', recording what the media wrote about IGNOU. The publication covered instances when the varsity was covered by the media staggeringly, then the current times. The third aspect focused on IGNOU 'Aspiration' covering the times ahead.

The second booklet recorded the IGNOU vision and was titled, IGNOU- 'All Times, Everywhere'.

"If nature is to be understood, you have to understand what Mahatma Gandhi said about it - Nature provides for everyone's need but not for anyone's greed".

Quoting this as the theme of his IGNOU Foundation Day lecture on today, celebrated agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha member Prof. M.S. Swaminathan explained, "Agriculture is applied ecology. It depends on the sustainability of land, water, biodiversity and climate. Settled cultivation or agriculture began over 10,000 years ago, when the women grew crops while men roamed around gathering foods. This eventually marked the shift from food gathering to food growing."

Before putting his insight for a plausible sustainable approach to Agriculture, the Professor lamented, "With increase in human population, it became necessary for man to adopt intensive systems of agriculture involving use of mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides. The Green Revolution of 1960s was the product of interaction between improved generic strains and better soil nutrients with irrigation availability. Unfortunately, the Green Revolution gradually became a Greed Revolution."

Prof. Swaminathan said that in India, nearly 80 percent of farm families own one hectare or less of arable land. Therefore, there is a need for higher productivity in small farms in order to ensure adequate marketable surplus to earn cash income.

"Organic farming will be easier to adopt, if the farmer has several farm animals. It is particularly important in vegetable crops and medicinal plants, in order to avoid pesticide residues in the edible market", he said.

Prof. Abid Hussain, a former Ambassador to USA, expressed his shock at the missing of a vision in today's India, which has always nurtured the culture of pluralism and liberal education.

"Education has to be liberal to be effective. Liberal Education is knitted into a plural and diverse societal culture that is India. Education should be able to foster a liberal and sympathetic human heart and develop a society for culture, beauty and aesthetics", Prof. Hussain said.