PM's Address on 83rd anniversary of ICAR Important article on agricultural scene in India

PM's Address on 83rd Anniversary of ICAR

 

-The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, addressed the 83rd Foundation Day of Indian Coincil of Agricultural Research in New Delhi on 16 July 2011.

-Following are the highlights of the Prime Minister’s address on the occasion.

1. An estimated production of 241 million tonnes, was achieved because of record production of wheat, maize and pulses in the crop year July to June. Oilseeds production also set a new record.
2. Though we have achieved self sufficiency in cereal production, we continue to depend on imports for pulses and edible oils. We continue to face the problem of under-nutrition, particularly among our children and women. Ensuring food and nutritional security and eliminating hunger, including hidden hunger, remain a high national priority.
3. The total demand for foodgrains is projected to touch 280 million tonnes by the year 2020-21. Meeting this demand will necessitate a growth rate of nearly 2 per cent per annum in food production. The enormity of the task ahead is indicated by the fact that during the 10 year period 1997-98 to 2006-07, our foodgrain production grew at an average annual rate of only 1.00 per cent.
4. Foodgrain production has since regained the requisite momentum and the agriculture sector as a whole is set to grow at 3% per annum during the Eleventh Plan. However, this is less than the targeted 4% and a consequence in recent years has been unacceptable levels of food price inflation.
5. The regions of the country which witnessed the green revolution are suffering from problems of environmental degradation. In many other regions of the country, particularly in eastern India, yields continue to be much lower than what is attainable. More generally, it should concern us that productivity in Indian agriculture has plateaued over the years.
6. We clearly need a second green revolution that is more broad-based, more inclusive and more sustainable; we need to produce more without depleting our natural resources any further, and we look towards our agricultural scientists for ushering this green revolution.
7. India currently spends about 0.6 per cent of its agricultural GDP on agricultural Research and Development. This needs to be enhanced at least 2 to 3 times by 2020, since a substantial portion of our agricultural growth would come through the application of new technologies and new knowledge to production processes. But spending more on research is not enough unless this improves the quality of human resources in all areas of agriculture.
8. Today there are more than 50 State Agriculture Universities and institutions and one Central Agricultural University imparting higher agricultural education. All these institutions need to provide the best of academic inputs along with hands-on training to the students.
9. Rainfed agriculture continues to play a very important role in our economy, contributing about 60 per cent of the cropped area and 45 per cent of the total agricultural produce. Rainfed areas contribute more than 80% of the pulses and oilseeds grown as well as a substantial part of horticulture and animal husbandry produce.
10. The second Green Revolution, must therefore explicitly embrace dryland farming. Though many new technologies have been developed for our rainfed regions, yield gaps continue to be very large and not enough is being done to identify the most suitable farming systems and to ensure that they are effectively integrated with our watershed development projects.
11. The area that needs most attention is the management of water, which is going to be probably the most scarce factor in the twenty-first century. Our irrigation efficiency is estimated to be around 30% which needs to be raised to at least 50%. Resource conservation technologies that improve input use efficiency, and conserve and protect our natural resources need to be aggressively promoted. We must also recognize the risks of an excessive reliance on hydrocarbon inputs in increasing agricultural production and we should explore more systematically, organic alternatives like algae, for example.
12. Climate change has emerged as a major challenge to our agriculture, indeed to the management of our economy as a whole. The immediate problems that our farmers face relate to intra-seasonal variability of rainfall, extreme events and unseasonal rains. These aberrations cause heavy losses to our crops every year. There is therefore an urgent necessity for us to speed up our efforts to evolve climate-resilient crop varieties, cropping patterns and management practices. I am very happy that the ICAR is implementing a major scheme, the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture and has set up the state-of-the-art National Institute on Abiotic Stress Management. The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, which is one of the eight Missions under our National Action Plan on Climate Change also seeks to devise appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies for ensuring food security, enhancing livelihood opportunities and contributing to economic stability at the national level.
13. I would like to touch upon two other areas that we need to focus on for accelerating our agricultural performance.
    • The first is the protection of crops, animals and farm produce against new and emerging diseases and pathogens.
    • The second is careful application of biotechnology to improve productivity, enable better resilience to stress and also enhance the incomes of our farmers. I hope our agricultural Research and Development institutions will pay the required attention to these areas in the coming years.

The Krishi Karman Awards were also given away to various states on the ocassion.
UPDATE: According to latest reports India has produced a record quantum of wheat and pulses in the 2010-11 crop year, ending June, at 85.93 million tonnes and 18.09 million tonnes, respectively.
Also, the country is estimated to have harvested 95.32 million tonnes of rice and 42.22 million tonnes of coarse cereals in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June) (Jul 19, 2011)