PRESIDENT OF INDIA SPEECH ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

This is my first visit to Punjab in my present capacity. I had indeed looked forward to being here - amongst the distinguished scientists and experts present today. This Institution is synonymous with the Green Revolution which transformed Indian agriculture, making our country self reliant in feeding its population. Today, we produce enough to spare for export and assistance to other developing countries. It is the Punjab Agricultural University that pioneered agricultural research and technology dissemination in our country - at a time in the '60s when this was a crucial need. Its scientists engaged with a sense of urgency in research, innovation and foreign collaborations. They have since developed hundreds of new strains, high yielding and robust varieties of crops and studied the management of environmental, weather and soil conditions. I congratulate the Punjab Agriculture University for its splendid contribution in the service of our nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the agriculture sector in India continues to be the lifeline of our people and a key factor in our economy's overall productivity. It has rightly been accorded due priority in every budget and Plan for achieving India's developmental goals. Government of India has, over the decades, introduced a variety of schemes and measures to give support to the entire agriculture sector from small farmers to large investors. Institutions and banks have been created to focus on supporting agriculture development, fixing remunerative prices and improve agricultural marketing. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices and the Food Corporation of India have been set up to recommend Minimum Support Prices and procure grains for public stocks respectively, the NABARD and Regional Rural Banks to ensure easy and adequate credit availability, and programmes such as the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, National Food Security Mission and National Horticulture Mission have taken the Government's outreach to the farthest and remotest regions.

Promoting inclusive growth, sustaining food security and boosting rural incomes in the country is intrinsically linked to growth in the Agriculture sector. As the Finance Minister, I had outlined a four-pronged strategy as part of the Union Budget for 2010-11 to drive growth in the Agriculture sector. The first component of the strategy was to extend the green revolution to the Eastern region of the country comprising Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa. The second component of the strategy was to reduce the significant wastage in storage as well as in the operations of the existing food supply chains in the country. The third component was to improve credit availability to the farmers, while the fourth component was to aim at providing a further impetus to the development of the food processing sector by providing state-of-the-art infrastructure and substantial fiscal incentives.


The initiative of bringing green revolution to Eastern India has resulted in a significant increase in production of paddy, as States in Eastern India reported additional paddy production of 7 million tonnes in Kharif 2011. The total paddy production in the country increased from 95.98 million metric tonnes in 2010-11 to 104.32 million metric tonnes in 2011-12. Mr. Robert S. Zeigler, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute in Manila lauded our achievement when he mentioned that "the most heartening aspect of India crossing the 100 million tonne rice production mark is that a major contribution has been from Eastern India". The total food grains production in the country increased from 244.78 million metric tonnes in 2010-11 to 257.44 million metric tonnes in 2011-12. To reduce wastage in storage, concrete steps have been taken by the Government to create additional food grain storage capacity in the country. Two million tonnes of storage capacity in the form of modern silos have already been approved for creation. Further, nearly 15 million tonnes of storage capacity is being created through private entrepreneurs and warehousing corporations. To enable the timely availability of affordable agriculture credit to the farmers, the target for flow of agriculture credit has been enhanced in the Union Budgets from time to time, from Rs.3,75,000 crore in 2010-11 to Rs.5,75,000 crore in 2012-13. The Mega Food Park scheme, which was introduced in the Eleventh Plan, aims at developing farm proximate state of the art infrastructure with strong backward and forward linkage in a demand driven manner. 30 Mega Food Parks are being planned for creation in this financial year.

At the present juncture, we have come a long way. The growth rate of GDP in Agriculture and allied activities in 2011-12 is 2.8 per cent which is, of course, lower than the growth rate of 7 per cent in 2010-11 but higher than the growth rates of 0.4 per cent in 2008-09 and 1.7 per cent in 2009-10.

There is however, a reality that cannot be ignored - and I take this opportunity to call upon all present here today to reflect on why, despite all these successes and efforts and despite India's overall improved economic performance, the economic viability of this sector is still a challenge. There are, even today, so many regions in our country where subsistence farmers and small farmers remain susceptible to failure, risk and desperation. Despite various programmes and schemes of Government- complemented by the efforts of the scientific and corporate community, why is it that prosperity has eluded a large part of this sector? It is ironical that although India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, value addition to this produce is just 7 per cent and processing only around 3 per cent of production. There is hardly any value addition at the farm level - and 98 per cent of farm produce is sold as it is harvested. Due to our tropical / subtropical conditions, more than 25% of production is lost during harvest and post harvest operations. We import a large amount of the pulses we consume. In the agriculturally advanced regions, there are problems of over-exploiting ground water resources and vulnerability to pests and crop diseases; over-mining of nutrient reserves has led to multi-nutrient deficiencies. Excessive use of fertilizers is taking its toll on the productivity of soil.

I recall a comment of Mahatma Gandhi which made a profound impression on me : He said, and I quote, "A farmer cannot work without applying his mind. He must be able to test the nature of his soil, must watch changes of weather, must know how to manipulate his plough skillfully and be generally familiar with the movements of the stars, the sun and the moon......"

This is a compelling reason for the Indian farmer to be provided the wherewithal that he urgently needs - the financial, technological, infrastructural, transportation and other requirements for a sustainable approach for the increased productivity that we seek.

In this context, I take this opportunity to share a few thoughts on the challenges that we must address. We need to do a re-think on agriculture in India. And we need to do this urgently to ensure food security in India. We must have in place a coherent and comprehensive policy that has synergy among its various elements. Government initiatives are of little use without efficient systems for their implementation. Equally important is the necessity for collaboration between the state and central governments on the monitoring and appraisal of various schemes. A co-ordinated and integrated approach should start at the grassroots, taking into account all the factors.

Many policies are susceptible to failure because of inaccurate feedback. Collation of information and policy integration is essential. As I am among academia and experts, I would like to suggest that we identify the priorities and act swiftly. I would put training and entrepreneurship development high in my list of items requiring urgent attention. To this I would add the task of developing and reaching appropriate technology to farmers, agriculture marketing reforms, studying the present yield gaps and methods to harvest wastelands, address wastage and overuse of fertilizers and develop simple IT tools for farmers - that are user friendly and can provide relevant and timely information relating to weather forecasts. Enhanced productivity would reduce per unit cost, enhancing the global competitiveness of our produce.

Farm mechanization, linking farms with markets and adding value at each stage will help in employment generation, entrepreneurship development, increased profits to farmers and safe and healthy food to consumers. Investments in food processing sector have multiplying benefits for all, and hence a major boost needs to be given to the processing sector. Fiscal incentives and land leasing policies of State Governments should be such that agro-processing, especially in the rural areas, becomes a lucrative option both for the farmers and the private sector.

A useful part of the re-assessment would be a mapping and indexing of crops and livestock to anticipate market demands, plan resource allocation and ensure its optimal utilisation to ensure maximum output. This would give an edge in the global market. Similarly, the agro-industry, in partnership with research institutions can plan relevant and standardised crop production and efficient agricultural supply chains, which are vertically integrated. Improved connectivity between agricultural universities and the farmers could be very beneficial for both.

Most importantly, innovation-of new varieties, technologies and methods for post harvest processes--should move up on our priority list. The percentage of GDP from Agriculture and allied activities spent on research and development must be increased from the current level of 0.6 per cent to 1.0 per cent in the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

I believe that a multi-pronged strategy involving technology development, new marketing methods, precision in farm operations and innovative policy instruments is required to ensure agricultural sustainability and food and livelihood security and I would stress the importance of due attention to modernising food storage and its distribution.

This Conference on Sustainable Agriculture for Food and Livelihood Security is, therefore, an important opportunity for stakeholders to review the current overall approach and, develop an updated, comprehensive strategy to accelerate agricultural growth and further strengthen national food and livelihood security in India

I also take this opportunity to convey my best wishes to the students and faculty for success in all their endeavours in years to come.

With these words, I have the pleasure to formally inaugurate this conference.

Jai Hind

Irom Sharmila----Brave woman

Irom Sharmila, Manipur's 'Iron Lady', on Monday completed 12 years of protest demanding repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). On an indefinite fast, Sharmila, who is force-fed through the nose to keep her alive began her fast till death after ten persons, including a boy who received the national bravery award, were shot dead in an alleged encounter with Assam Rifles personnel at Malom near Imphal airport on November 2, 2000. A newspaper columnist and social worker then, Sharmila, went on fast on November 5 that year demanding repeal of AFSPA. She was arrested a day later and charged with attempt to commit suicide.

She is force fed at a government hospital at Porompat where the ward, she is in, has been converted into a jail. Sharmila has received several global awards and several prominent personalities from different parts of the country have visited her in support of her demands. 

The demands of Sharmila is not only a genuine cause but also the whole grievances of north east people especially those from areas declared as disturbed.

According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as "disturbed", an officer of the armed forces has powers to:

* Fire upon or use other kinds of force even if it causes death, against the person who is acting against law and order in the disturbed area for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning

* To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences or is reasonably suspected of having done so and may use force if needed for the arrest.

Depending on Jeevan Reddy commission govt promised to amend the act and ensure 'humane' nature of act, but the promises became an eye wash measures and the act is still being enforced in the following states:
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland , Tripura and Jammu & kashmir.

AGRARIAN UNREST

India is seventh largest country with an area of around 33 lakh sq.Km and second largest in population with nearly 121 crore people.Our huge population is mostly dependent on domestic agriculture production for  food security.During  initial years of our independence we were dependent on food aid from foreign countries(mostly form U.S.A),but with in one decade we moved near to self sufficient.India proved herself the brave and hard working nature by achieving self sufficiency, in food, when entire world was thinking about final stages of India.This spectacular achievement can be attributed to our great Indian farmers led by versatile administrators of that time(founding fathers of India).

This victory in agriculture would have least possible if our farmers couldn't put their sweat in our mother land. So, the person who made us self sufficient and who is feeding our belly is nothing but our brave farmer.It would be difficult for me to describe the greatness of our farmer, he is the person who is feeding entire population in spite of many challenges in cultivation.The real servants of society are not those who are in front pages of news paper but are those from soil of rural India.

But, during recent past our great warrior is struggling himself to ensure nation self sufficiency.The person who is feeding us is finding difficult to feed himself and starving his stomach.The reasons can be trace out to the following to the best of my knowledge.

* Vagaries of monsoon.
* Nature fury(cyclones etc)
* Irrigation facilities.
* Degradation of land.
* Fertilizer subsidies
* Ever increasing population.
* Failure of Govt policies like NREGA.
* Costly credit.
* lack of mechanization and scientific management.
* No proper remuneration to produced output.
* Bad procurement network.
* Lack of warehousing facilities
* Lack of cold storage chains.
* Loop holes in PDS.
* Hoarding and future trading.
*Policy paralysis in Govt.

Indian economy is gamble of monsoon, the right time arrival of monsoon decides the fate of agriculture which in turn decides the fate of entire economy.The recent events proved again how the vagaries of monsoon impacting the Indian agriculture.The deficit in rainfall during june, july months led lacks of acres of land to leave fallow.In some parts  of Andhra  pradesh the Kharif season started too lately in the month of august instead of June.So, harvest is slightly delayed  and likely to happen during November and December.But, when farmers are about to reap the crop the  Neelam cyclonic effect taken it's fury on coastal areas of Tamil nadu and Andhra pradesh by destroying nearly 14 lakh acres in AP alone(nearly 50 people died in this calamity).All together the late monsoonal rains and the Neelam cyclone ensured southern India farmer with huge loss and unrecoverable damage.

India is well equipped with good river systems having perennial Himalayan rivers on northern part of India and monsoonal river systems on central and southern part of India.Having plenty of water resources still many parts in India are struggling for water because of lack of irrigation management.Every year millions of cusecs of water is flowing into sea over Ganga, BrahmaPutra and, Gadavari. The river inter-linking project which was proposed to join northern perennial rivers with southern non-perennial rivers ensures unirrigated areas with irrigation facilities,but this project is facing it's own scientific hurdles and social challenges and finally emerged as unimaginable project.The construction of many other nation importance dams also became questionable with day by day uprising opposition on the grounds of  environmental rights, tribal rights, regional politics, and challenges posed for mitigating problems of displaced.

Thanks to green revolution , it has played great role in achieving self sufficiency by introducing high yielding vaarities(HYV) of seeds and usage of synthetic fertilizers. This HYV seeds requires good irrigation facilities, so the introduction of this seeds was restricted to areas where irrigation facilities are already available and where irrigation facilities can be provided easily.So,it mainly concentrated in Punjab, haryana, western central india,some patches of eastern coastal India.The green revolution is restricted to certain parts only.The uncovered areas left with low or no productivity while the covered areas ensured with high productivity with the usage of HYV and fertilizers.But, over the due course of time the green revolution covered areas are facing problem of land degradation because of unsustainable exploitation of land with excessive dose of nitrozen-fertilizer and pesticides.The implementation process of fertilizer subsidy also motivating farmer to use it unscientifically. Now we are at cross roads to take up second green revolution to cover entire India with sustainable usage of synthetic materials in harmony with land fertility.

As I mentioned earlier India is rich country in human resources but at the same time this richness itself leading to poverty because of mismanagement of resources.The ever increasing population generating huge work force but to absorb this huge work force Indian Industry and service sectors has it's own limitations.So, out of total work force 65-70% of work force depends on agriculture and it's allied activities.The actual demand of work force for Indian agriculture sector is well below than 10% .This phenomenon leading to disguised unemployment in this sector. Children may be burden to any one else but not to mother, Agriculture is taking care of it's children and giving space to all by splitting herself into small and further small land holdings. These small land holdings are coming against to the scientific management of crops.The small land holding farmers are not able to adopt new mechanisms and the costly credit driving them into debt trap which is primary reason for all farmer suicides in India.

On par with all these hurdles the research and development in Agriculture sector is also not upto the present requirements. The investment rates in bio-technology and genetic engineering is at it's minimum in India. The developments of transgenic plants are yet to indigenize and reach the stage of commercial benefit. The plight of cotton growers in India is the best example to appreciate the science and technology role in developing BT cotton seeds.The gap between Agriculture university and farmers is huge in India. This gap is leaving our warrior unaware of scientific methods, in cultivation methodologies, which is leading to unviable economic practice to farmer.

In spite of all these hurdles our farmer is coming to market with a hope to sell his produce at a rate which will compensate i/p cost and little margin of profit. But, this is the juncture where small and marginal farmers are getting cheated by middle men.The middle men are those who are micro financiers and procurement agents in rural India.With their credit system farmer is compelled to sell his produce at throw away prices immediately after the harvest is over. In fact the farmer will get competitive price if he manages to store the produce at least for the next quarter,but he is not allowed to do so bcz of policies of middle men.

Every year on an average basis Indian farmer is producing around 240-250 million tonnes of food grains out of which around 84 million tonnes are procured by Food Corporation of India(FCI) and remaining procured by market players. Out of 80 or 84 MT with FCI, it has proper storage facilities to store only for around  60 MT, the remaining stored out side godowns, under the sun, out of which narly 6.5 MT are being maintained with unscientific measures.Because of lack of storage facilities considerable lot of grain is getting rotted. the problem is there in cold storage chains also which is leading to wastage of perishable vegetables and fruits.

The Public Distribution System(PDS) was universal PDS at least in papers till 1997, after this year PDS converted into targeted PDS which led to too much of misappropriation in food grains. There were many families left out of Anthyodaya anna yojana, which is part of targeted PDS, who are really deserved of it.On one side the PDS is struggling with poor quality of food grains and the other side with inefficient management of fair price shops(FPSs) and it's network mechanisms.Moreover the food grains offered by PDS are mainly rice and wheat, but there are many villages in India where the staple food of the people being maize and millets. Many people even from above the poverty line are desperate to have access to PDS for subsidized food grain. Identification of households who are eligible for BPL status, a qualification to get entitlement for PDS services, has been highly irregular and diverse in various states. The recent development of Aadhar cards has taken up this challenge of solving the problem of identification and distribution of PDS services along via Direct Cash Transfers.In this cash transfer schemes proposals also there were certain limitations, born out of Indian culture, clearly raised by noble laureate Amartya Sen.

In addition to all these the self interests of millers are driving the crucial farm produce to hoarding and future trading which is one of the factor in rise of food inflation in India.

The last but the most important one to address these problems is Govt policies which is facing policy paralysis because of insecure govt. There are problems in agriculture which govt also can't help anything and at the same time there are many where govt can mitigate the problems  to a large extinct especially in the management of PDS and subsidies to fertilizers..

Finally in this modern world after achieving scientific temper in human civilization and administration, our innocent farmer still continuing to pray for lord Varuna and goddess soil for their holy Karuna which is a pathetic story.

We may live without machines and computers but can't be lived without food.please be aware of  the state of our food donor and act in cohesion for his development.As rightly said by A. P. J Abdul Kalam and Y.S Rajan in "India 2020", I firmly believe that India has every capability to lead the entire world if we maintain our resources in a proper way.    

JAI JAWAN...JAI KISAN