Golden Jubilee Lecture

TOWARDS  AN  EVERGREEN  REVOLUTION  IN  AGRICULTURE

M.  S.  Swaminathan

Chairman

                    M. S. Swaminathan Foundation,  Chennai

Mr.    Grover,   Chairman -FAI;  Mr. Madhukar Gupta, Secretary – Fertilizers; Mr. Saha, DG-FAI; Mr. Grewal; Distinguished Members of the The Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) – one of the most dynamic institutions, I know;  ladies and gentlemen.

I have seen the birth and growth of the FAI. As was mentioned by  Mr. Grover, the first Chief Executive of FAI was Mr. Ranganathan. He was the Inspector General of Forest before he joined FAI. I had known him for a long time. When he took over the same position, he came to me and had long conversations about the Association and its activities. Of course, later on, Mr. Satya Nand joined the Association and was a dynamic Chief Executive for many years. So, from Mr. Ranganathan   to  Mr. Saha, the organisation has been very fortunate in having a series of excellent Chief Executives. I want to congratulate the chair person and the office bearers of FAI.

FAI has been a very strong professional organisation, right from the beginning. The annual meetings of FAI, many of which I have attended, always been  really worthwhile. They were not just the meetings for meetings’ sake. But something, which were really constructive. I recall in December 1974, when I was asked to  speak, I suggested to  the Association  that they should go more in the area of  Integrated Nutrient Management, taking not only  mineral  fertilisers  but  also organic manures, bio fertilisers, nitrogen fixing trace species, green manure crops and, so on. In the very next year, i.e., 1975, FAI launched an excellent programme on Integrated Nutrient  Management in Crops. So, my association with FAI has been very pleasant. When I received Mr. Grover and Mr. Saha’s invitation, I thought that it would be a privilege for me to be with you, particularly on the occasion of 50th Anniversary of this great organisation. I thought that I will share some thoughts  with you about the work of the National Commission on Farmers, particularly in relation to the activities of   FAI. FAI means the  Fertiliser  Industry as a whole. After all, it is a collective representative organisation of  the  Fertiliser  Industry as a whole.

We have now entered into era of global competitiveness in agriculture. There is concern about the slackness in the agricultural growth, Hon’ble Prime Minister and  Mr. Sharad Pawarji have been frequently mentioning the need for accelerating  the  growth in agriculture. Even yesterday, the Prime  Minister said that if the agricultural growth fixes up a 10% growth rate in GDP, it is not beyond the possibility of our country. In fact, when I was the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Tenth Five Year Plan, I said that if we have a 4% growth in agriculture, we also need an 8% growth in horticulture and animal husbandry. Otherwise, we will not get a 4% growth in agriculture as a whole. From the days of the Green Revolution, we have the concept of sustainability or environmental sustainability, whether it is soil health or water (ground water, in particular), both water quality and water availability and bio diversity. These have become exceedingly important issues,  what we call, the basic life support systems of land, water, forest, bio diversity and the atmosphere. Everyday now, you read about the Kyoto Protocol; or beyond Kyoto - the climate change, even the skeptics may change. In the present days, the United States have changed their views. It is something not a probability but a distinct possibility, in terms of  changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as rise in the sea level  and more frequent occurrences of natural calamities,  natural problems, including probably, Tsunami, the various kinds of cyclonic storms,  the skewness in temperature and so on.

We have to enhance the productivity because land is going out of agriculture all the time. Hereafter, we have only an opportunity for a vertical growth in productivity and not a horizontal area expansion possibility. Therefore, productivity is important. Quality has become exceedingly important, including the presence of aflatoxins, mycotoxins, Codex Alimentarius standards.  We are considering quality in our country, generally in terms of exports. We must be concerned. Our own consumers are as important as foreign consumers. Why should we have the good foods only for foreign consumers and not for our own?

Finally, it is income. Income has become fundamental to sustainable agriculture. Today, in the Hindustan Times or somewhere, I saw, now the farmers are loosing interest in agriculture. In fact, according to the data of National Sample Survey Organization, where 40% of those who were surveyed, said that they were not interested in farming. They will go to another option if they have some other option. Sustainability has been one of our main considerations. In fact, there is a quotation, from a talk I gave in January 1968. This was before the term Green Revolution was coined. In fact, it is this type of reasoning, which led me to appeal to FAI to start programmes on Integrated Nutrient Management. Essentially, what I said at that time is now well recognised. Excessive use of anything, whether it is mineral fertiliser, ground water, pesticides, unsustainable exploitation of aquifer, or replacing numerous local varieties with  one or two strains, always invite  disaster. If there is genetic homogeneity over large areas then there is a chance of falling down. Those who have cultivated or know about Bt Cotton, even there, it is advised to keep some kind of Refuge-A, some places, where the old variety is grown. So, there is no great pressure on the pathogen to change their nutrient. So, I coined the term “Evergreen Revolution”. Evergreen Revolution, I defined about 20 years ago. In this context, I request Mr Grover and Mr. Saha that wherever fertiliser companies operate, if they have not already done, in their own catchment areas, they should provide some kind of soil health card to every farmer to help them in terms of  monitoring their soil health.

So, here we go to a whole farming system, a whole crop rotation. Let us look at the land and water as an Integrated Natural Resources Management, not one crop like wheat or rice. Even today, the ICAR has a large number of programmes on rice-wheat rotation in the North India, taking rice and wheat  as  one cropping system. One has to look at the farming system as a whole, the crop and livestock. The livestock and livelihood are closely related among majority of our farmers. They do maintain some cows, buffaloes or others. It is important that we have natural resource management. This was the definition of “Evergreen Revolution”. What nations with small farms and resource poor farmers need, is the enhancement of productivity in perpetuity, without associated ecological or social harm.

The Green Revolution should become an Evergreen Revolution, routed in the principles of ecology, economics and social and gender equity. It is also important in relation to social sustainability.  Suppose, you replace a lot of people  whose  livelihood depends on agriculture then we have the social problems. So called  Naxalite movements and so on are ultimately the sense of social expressions and hopelessness. There is no other livelihood available. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop. Hence it is very important.

I was happy when the Crop Science Association of the United States, recently in early November commemorated their 50th Anniversary of the Crop Science Society, held at a Conference in the Salt Lake City. They took their main theme for the 50th anniversary, From a Green to an Ever- green Revolution. This is the cover page of the programme. In other words, the concept of looking at productivity in terms of sustainability over a long period of time has now become exceedingly important. Our own green revolution, this is the pedigree of how it started. A particular cross made at Norin Experimental Station by Dr. Gonziro Inajuka led to the development of, what we call, the Norin 10, and other short variety, semi-dwarf varieties. Those varieties were given by Dr. Inajuka to Dr. Orville Vogel in the United States and from there it went to Dr. Norman Borlaug. We got our varieties from Dr. Norman Borlaug. It is a very historic pedigree. Because it  influenced very greatly wheat production in the world. But in those days when FAI was established 50 years ago, the exchange of plant materials was very easy among the plant beeders. One could write to somebody and they would send the seeds and so on.

Today, it has become very complex because there are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Breeders’ Rights, etc. IPR could be either in terms of patents or World Intellectual Property Rights, Organisation. The on-going Doha negotiations, will again  discuss it in Hongkong very shortly in the WTO negotiations on IPR. These have become very complicated, because of IPR today. In the case of drugs, it is of great importance, for example, drugs for HIV/AIDS, every body should have access to it. Not only those who have a lot of money. In other words, from exclusivity, we want to go to inclusivity. Same is true in relation to food security. Whether it is food security or health security, it is important that the discoveries of great importance are available to every one including small farmers, marginal farmers. Eighty per cent of our farmers have small holdings and they should not be excluded. This is why, our legislation on Plant Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, are put together in the same act for the first time in the world. The rights of breeders and the rights of farmers are put in the same act. Because they should not be mutually antagonistic. Therefore, the two rights should be mutually reinforcing as same.

Now, in relation to your own very important contribution to the maintenance of soil health, improvement of soil nutrition, of course, inputs are needed for output. If I need one tonne of rice, about 20 kgs of nitrogen and associated phosphorus, potash and micronutrients will be needed. Australia has a very good record, after the settlers went there, they found after a few years, the yield was going down. Then they started studying from 1850 onwards, the role of superphosphate, the legume-cereal rotation, and so on. The cereal-legume rotation then laid down to the mineral fertilisers, integrated nutrient supply and the semi-dwarf varieties. In our own country, today in the soil health problem, we have the serious problems of micronutrient deficiencies, apart from macronutrient deficiencies. ICRISAT, CRIDA at Hyderabad and ICAR institutions have a lot of data. In fact, when ICAR started the All India Micro Nutrient Scheme, the very first coordinator was Dr. N. S. Randhawa, who later on became the DG of ICAR. Dr. Randhawa coordinated the scheme on micronutrient deficiency. Even in those days, Dr. Randhawa said unless our soil testing laboratories are fully equipped with micronutrient deficiency analysis also, the macronutrients alone will not give the full results. The investments on the macro nutrients will not bear fruit unless the micronutrient deficiencies are identified. It is like a child who does not have vitamin A, goes blind. You may have any amount of calories and proteins but there may be deficiencies of vitamin A or iron deficiency anemia or zinc or iodine.  So, I would request the FAI in its 50th year, to help in strengthening the laboratories wherever they are with micronutrient deficiency analysis also. Because it is  in the interest of the fertiliser industry that we have the balanced fertilisation, not only in terms of NPK (which, of course gets distorted because of the pricing policies) but also micronutrients.

In 1968, Mrs.Indira Gandhi announced the Wheat Revolution and the Wheat Revolution was the product of a symphony approach. Everybody did their part - administrators, political leaders, scientists, farmers, and the input supply agencies and so on. We call it a Green Revolution symphony. All came together.  This is called a revolutionary growth and not an evolutionary growth and that is why, it was called Wheat Revolution. Later on, an American scientist, William Guard coined the term Green Revolution. This was much after the wheat revolution stamp released by Mrs. Indira Gandhi. It has got the Clock Tower of the Pusa Institute, which is commemorating its centenary this year, as a mark of the role of science.

We thought that our agriculture has made tremendous progress. We were all proud and happy. The world had predicted that India will not be able to make progress in agriculture. Our farmers, starting with Punjab farmers, proved those wrong. But now, this year in particular, there has been a lot of pessimism on the agricultural front for a variety of reasons. The magazine Outlook, for example, in their tenth anniversary number stated about the death of Indian farmers. Even now,  suicides are occurring in Vidarbha region, in particular. Therefore, we have to be not complacent. We have to understand the problems. Why is that we are in difficulty. From a revolutionary phase, we have come to a very difficult phase in our agriculture. The economics of agriculture is going wrong. The farmers are not able to get large income but not even survival income. In fact, whatever support we give to the farmers is only a small support as subsidy. We have recommended to the Farmers’ Commission that it should be called life saving support. Even Americans, when they give enormous amount of money to the farmers under variety of columns, do not call it as subsidy. It is not trade distorting. Trade distorting are only those which distort trade internationally and not nationally. Ninety five per cent of our produces are consumed locally. So, it is our duty to look after our farmers.

Today, our farming is in a serious crisis. So, the Prime Minister and the present government have called for a New Deal - Bharat Nirman, new deal for farmers and also a new deal for rural India. The Finance Minister and the Minister of Agriculture have announced a number of steps, including doubling of rural credit, increasing investment opportunities, greater public-private sector partnership, increasing storage facilities (rural godowns) so that losses are minimized. A National Horticulture Mission has already been launched. I have mentioned earlier that to get a 4% growth in agriculture, we need to have 8% growth in horticulture. Therefore, horticulture – fruits, vegetables and flowers have become exceedingly important. There will be establishment of at least one Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)  in every district. A National Rainfed Authority has been announced. There will be considerable amount of strengthening in the strategic research in agriculture, formation of an Agricultural Coordination Committee under the Prime Minister with the concerned ministers, including fertilisers and so on. So, several steps have been taken to reverse the declining trend and also to see how our farmers’ well-being can be protected.

 One crore (10 million) hectares of additional land will be brought under irrigation. It is very important that the matter is discussed. How we are going to get these 10 million hectares? In most parts of the country, ground water is over-exploited. If you have medium and large projects which involve displacement of people, there are objections from the people’s groups, non-governmental groups. Those who are from Andhra Pradesh know  there are lot of objections on the Puluvaram project. So, the one crore hectare will come from where? It will have to be carefully analysed. How much is going to be under medium irrigation and how much under minor irrigation. How much is going to be just water harvesting and the water-shed management. Hereafter, irrigation will also require considerable degree of careful planning along with the people, so, we do not make investment at the end of which, we have problems, protests, court cases and so on. Tehri dam, Narmada is a classical example.

Other important areas are connecting roads, electricity, etc. We have also recommended from the National Commission on Farmers that knowledge connectivity is as important as physical connectivity. Finally, modern agriculture – the ecological agriculture is becoming more and more knowledge intensive. Only recently, there was a meeting here on precision farming, covering plasti-culture, micro irrigation, drip irrigation, low cost green houses, etc. Precision farming means one should have much more intensive knowledge – when to apply, what not to apply, when to apply fertilisers, pesticides, etc. Even when, we had the dwarf wheat in 1963-64, the first thing we dealt with was, when and how to apply fertilisers for the maximum efficiency in the semi-dwarf varieties, and how deep the seeds should be grown. So, the agronomic practices must also be developed.

The whole kinds of land degradation, soil salinisation, irrigation, water crisis, declining factor productivity are threats to the farmers’ well-being. The productivity has gone down considerably per unit of nutrient. Under increased NPK use, how much more grain one gets. Unless factor productivity is increased, our cost of production will be high and our competitiveness will be very low. Therefore, factor productivity requires a considerable attention. Unfavourable economics, deficient input supply system, inadequate efforts in generating more livelihood opportunities in the non-farm and off-farm sectors led to lower factor productivity. A small farmer in a dry farm area cannot make enough money from farming alone. In fact, even the recent data show, 20% of the people below poverty line in our country are the small farmers. Our poverty line is one of the most austerely defined poverty lines in the world. One cannot go below that. That is where the importance of livestock, processing, agri-processing, etc. comes in. What is more important today is the mindset change. How to connect agriculture with all those areas associated with agriculture. We must look at the incomes of the farmers rather than express in terms of million tonnes of wheat, million tonnes of grains and so on. China has already started showing its agricultural progress in terms of growth rates in farmers’ income. For example, last year in China, the growth rate in farmers’ income was 6%. They say that they want to raise it to 8-10%. Even our agronomy journals should cover not only in terms of yield per hectare but also increase in the income per hectare. Although it depends upon ultimately take-home pay. All those who receive salary, talk about take-home pay. For the farmers also, the net take- home income is most important.

The balanced fertilisation and the fertiliser use efficiency has become important both for macro and micro- nutrients. We should also look the farmers as guardians of national food security and livelihood security, and not the beneficiaries of government programmes. Because, to call farmers as beneficiaries is  wrong and degrading. They are benefiting the country. That is why, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri equated the Jawan and the Kisan at the same place. They are the two legs of freedom – Jai Kisan and Jai Jawan. I think that attitude should again be revived. There is too much patronage approach towards farmers. That mind set should go and move away from the concept of subsidy to live-saving support, except in the crops which are in the international market. For example, coffee, tea and rubber which have to use different methods of calculation. But as I have said earlier most of the crops are of our own.  I mentioned about the problems but there are opportunities also. Our average productivity is still low in most of the crops so we have a large untapped production reservoir even at the current levels of technology.

There is a considerable scope available for soil health enhancement.  This is where the FAI can play a very important role.  I hope, the 51st year of FAI will be devoted to soil health enhancement because it is in the interest of the Fertiliser Industry.  Fertiliser will play a key part but many other things will also play an important part.  So, it is important to look at the integrated soil health management.  There are many agricultural bright spots.  We have Krishi Pandits, Udyan Pandits.  People are doing outstandingly well, so there is no need for despair. It is important again to create tendency of confidence because we cannot achieve anything at all without confidence.  Some people try to create a mood of extreme pessimisms on the agricultural front. That is also not a good thing in the interest of the country.  We should aim at national and global trade opportunities.

Finally, growing symbiotic public -private partnership. I call it symbiotic because sometimes, the contract farming has not been beneficial to the farmers.  That is why in the Farmers Commission,  we have developed a code of conduct which is mutually beneficial.  Symbiotic means both are benefited, the contractor and the grower.  It should not be an exploitative arrangement.

  I mentioned earlier that agrarian crisis is deepening in some parts of our country. When the Commission went to Vidarbha, we found a very large number of  young widows with young children. The government is trying to do whatever they can to help them.  But it is important to look at the problems not in terms of one shot.  For example, for these children,  we have  (not outside the government) started a method of collecting funds for the children of those who  are dead. The women told us that many of them have to go as labours.  They will have to withdraw their children from schools. They will be child labours. What is the future of those wonderful and bright looking children? So, we have now started providing, as we did in the case of Tsunami, for those children at least upto 10 + 2, their school fees, nutrition, clothing, and so on.  All the requirements will be taken care of until they are upto their 12th class when they will have to come up on their own.  I, once  again request  the Fertiliser Industry,  in the catchment areas, where there are problems, to take it as a part of their social responsibility, some humanitarian aspects. It is not enough that we give one  lakh Rupees to these women and go away because most of the money is taken away by the money- lenders anyway.  These are the reasons for high indebtedness.  Then  the widow and the children are left behind to fend for themselves.  The girl child particularly, the mother said, we cannot educate one person. So the others have to go for work at the age of 7, 8, or 9 and so on.  We need in this country a much more attention to distress spots.  So we have recommended a livelihood security compact in areas, characterized by acute farmers’ distress.  The distress comes from several factors, including monsoon behaviour.  For example, I saw recently in the Thanjavore district in Tamil Nadu, farmers were extremely happy 3-4 weeks ago. Today, they are extremely sad because that is the agriculture. I have seen in Punjab beautiful crop of wheat but then there will be some hailstorm just before the harvest and the crop will be down.  So, agriculture is the most risky profession. Of course, there are insurance schemes but they are not enough.

We have also recommended more and more community food security and water security system by which local communities particularly in the areas which are far away, for example, in the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) region of Orissa.  Kalahandi, Bolangir, Koraput, which are hunger hot spots.  Now, the tribal people have started developing their own Gene Bank, Seed Bank, Water Bank, Grain Bank, etc.  In the community Grain Bank, one advantage is that they can also buy seeds, like ragi or millets. Our whole public system is comprised of only two crops, i. e, rice and wheat. But earlier, our food security depended upon a large number of other crops. In Himachal Pradesh, for example, crops like bathua (not only as a sag but also as a green), many of which disappeared.  We must now enlarge our food security basket; otherwise we will not be able to have local level food security.

Water has become a major constraint.  Earlier, in the beginning of green revolution, nutrient was the major constraint.  Today, water has become the major constraint.  How do you develop varieties which can be tailor-made? You can have designer varieties, designer crops, etc., according to the availability of water. Similarly, there may be inter-row water harvesting. There are different methods of management of the available water. For example, in Madhya Pradesh, in the black soil area under soyabean, if you have an implement, you can reach a furrow. In the furrow, you have inter-row water harvesting.  You can grow a crop like rice, and a crop which requires much less water.  So, we now require considerable support from the agricultural implements people. Agricultural implements of the right kind have become important. The government is promoting community water harvesting.  It is a good thing.  Some states like Tamil Nadu have made water harvesting, mostly in buildings but not in the agriculture.  For the household use, harvesting of water has become mandatory. But I think, we must make it mandatory everywhere. This requires a self-help group, what we call, pulses villages, arhar villages or til villages in Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai, supported by some banks which provide the credits  needed.  But those are very effective. Because the water is harvested, shared  and high value, low water requiring crops are grown, like pulses.  So, we need water and soil health management.

In many areas brick kilns have made lot of damages to the soil.  Once, Mrs. Indira Gandhi said in this very hall that many of our brick kiln people do not realise that in nature, it takes a century to make one centimetre of top soil, whereas metres of top soil are taken away in no time by brick makers.  Therefore, we require literacy. That is what we have done in many of our projects - bio villages.  It is to make the depression into  aqua-culture ponds.  Collect  water there and take katla, mrigal and rohu.  Aqua-culture and agriculture together are the parts of a strategy for increasing the income of the farmers.  Income is absolutely the bottom line for further growth.

We must also have much better methods of monsoon management.  There are enormous opportunities today in terms of simulation modelling of weather probabilities.    Monsoon management strategy will have to be very much developed in our country. Because increasingly, in our fate, not only in terms of crops but also the whole series of other distressing situation arising out of too much moisture or too little water.  So, we require a much better agency. We  have suggested as a one single step, helping the small farmers to increase farm productivity per unit of land and water. This will lead to a considerable reduction in poverty.  The small farmers constitute over 50% of our population. That is why, agricultural productivity is not only important for food security in the country but also poverty alleviation.

If you see the UN Millennium development goal, number one is curbing hunger and poverty. They put hunger and poverty together.  If you increase productivity both in Africa and in our own country of small farmers, somebody who produces 1.5 to 2 tonnes, if he produces 4 tonnes there will be 2 tonnes extra for the market and finally the income goes up.  In small farm productivity, apart from water, soil health enhancement is important.  We have recommended reorganization of the State Land Use Boards.  In addition to reorganizing, the idea is to have a National Land Use Advisory Service, may be at Nagpur itself.  There is a very large ICAR National Soil Survey and Land Use Planning Institution at Nagpur.  This can be a virtual organisation and not a brick and mortar organisation.  This will be a virtual organisation, in which a National Land Use Advisory Service may be created.  It is a hub and spokes model.  You have a hub and it will be related to spokes  in all the states.  In all the states, the Land Use Board can be developed into a Local Use Advisory Service. It can give pro-active advice to the farmers.  Say, during Kharif, 2 or 3 months before or even sometimes earlier, they can give early warning.  We had, onion crisis. Why should one go to China or Pakistan, when one month before, we knew the onion crop was badly damaged in the area, where the onion was grown. There must be an early warning of many of these, both in terms of potential surpluses or potential shortages, so that farmers should be insulated from the violent undulation in prices.

Unless we are able to give some key services to the farmers, it will be very difficult for them to fend for themselves.  Many of them are small farmers. So, one of the most important services is the land use.

In America, the farmers may be advised not to grow cotton because the prices will crash. Because they have a land set-aside scheme. They compensate the farmers for setting aside land because it is a rich country. But in a poor country like ours, it is obligatory on our part to give right advice to the farmers at the right time for the crops to grow.

The other day, when we were talking with Punjab farmers, they said everybody now says about diversification.  Diversification is a ‘mantra’. They were told to grow some Shimla Mirch, i.e., Paprika. But the government does not buy paprika and they don’t have enough market for it.  In the five star hotels how much can be consumed.  Therefore, all of  you who use the word chilly diversification unless you put the economics how you will diversify.  One can reverse the crisis but one can accentuate the crisis also. This is not of interest for any industry.  So rearrangement of  State Land Use Board, including modern information technology is very important.  We have the GIS mappings;  we have got number of satellites. Our  capacity in ICT is very great and it is not difficult for us to design a national, state  level, district level and village level land use advisory service.

We will have to think about international markets also.  What are the opportunities for exports? What is the likely domestic demand?  They can give some macro indications based upon weather forecast, medium-term forecast and data forecast.  Finally, it has to be location specific information.  We have a large number of agricultural universities, veterinary universities, rural universities and women universities; the gender dimension is very important.  All-over hundreds of these universities, agricultural, rural, women, etc., can be mobilised.  They can all be spokes, and then give local level advisory services.  We don’t have to incur extensive new expenditure.   What I am trying to say is that we have to optimize the benefit of what we already have.

 The other thing what we should do is convergence of technology missions and synergy, taking either an area of an irrigation project or a watershed in the case of rainfed areas. There are many missions. Of course, names of some of these have been changed. The word mission has been dropped.  These are Pulses Mission, Cotton Mission, Horticulture Mission, etc.  These missions have been formed for different purposes.  They provide some support to the farmers in the watershed depending upon whether it is a pulses area or in millet area. Bring along other services, other missions so that there is maximum support to the farmers depending upon the local crop.  These are simple management procedures and not new scientific requirements.  There is poor management of the investment which we are already making.  I am calling it new investment management. The investment, which has already been made, many of which inefficiently,  how to get best of them, must be our prime objective.

The Krishi Vigyan Kendras were started in 1974-75 to operationalise my concept of techline-technological literacy, in other words learning by doing.  Even if one does not have the formal literacy, one can master the latest technical skills by the pedagogic methodology.  This methodology is learning by doing, not by lecturing in a class room hall.  Krishi Vigyan Kendra is now 30 years old. Now, we have recommended in the Farmers Commission, they become Krishi and Udyog Vigyan Kendra’s.  In other words, post-harvest technology.  There is increasing mismatch between the production technology and the post-harvest technology.  How do we bring value addition to primary products by adding a small wing in all Krishi Vigyan Kendras by using  agro-processing.  One need not to go to a new building. On the existing Krishi Vigyan Kendras, add to its capacity for post-harvest technology. Then wastages will be minimized.

How do you become globally competitive? We have not created those facilities, simple things, like a community drawing yard and so on.  So, investment in the post-harvest technology has been very little. Talking about diversification, value addition, horticulture and so on, will have no meaning.  If you go to the North East, you will find Horticulture Mission is there. But the productivity has not gone up at all. Two weeks ago, I was in Imphal and Agartala. The farmers of Agartala said that what they produced in Agartala, where they can send them. They send it to Bangladesh because the border is there. I think, it is important to integrate this principle.

The size of the farms are becoming smaller and smaller.  We must think of management procedures which can give the power of scale - both the economy of scale and the power of scale.  So, what we have recommended in our Report to the National Commission on Farmers is to group them. We can call it a Small Farmers’ Cotton Estate. In other words, in 100 or 200 hectares, the cotton farmers of that area join together.  In Egypt, its cotton production, the pest management, etc. is completely common in a village. They have a zonation of varieties also according to the extra long staple, demand, etc. But the strength of the  fertiliser companies, is the management efficiency.  In your area, you can help small farmers to gain the power of scale by means of gathering together – certain operations together.  In other words, certain common services, supporting the decentralized production. We are not interfering in local ownership.  I am not talking about cooperative farming, although it may be ideal. But the fact remains that we have come to a stage when we need to have such ventures. For instance, sugar factories have done a remarkable job.  For a very long time, they have a tradition.  In fact, we have requested the Textile Industry when we had a meeting with the Cotton Mills Owners’ Association.   We made a similar request, “As sugarcane factories are giving support to the sugarcane farmers, you also give some support to the cotton farmers, in terms good quality inputs, seeds and so on.” In sugarcane, UP and Bihar have large areas. In  Uttar Pradesh, the average yield is very low.  The yield of sugarcane is high in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and they go for higher yields. But in Maharashtra, the problem will be water. Already the water shortage is so great that they cannot exploit the water.  But there is a considerable scope for increasing productivity in large areas of Uttar Pradesh, at least 80 tonnes per hectare.  Detailed suggestions have been given how to do it,  by partnership with the sugarcane factories, with the Government, Panchayati Raj institutions, Farmers Associations, etc., because, the efficiency of sugarcane must also go up. Otherwise, demand for higher and higher prices is not the way to overcome inefficiency. They have to become much more efficient in terms of production.

Market reform is being discussed today. Land, water, credit, technology and market are the five pillars of  the progress to agriculture. (i) Land: The land management and  soil health management facility.  (ii) Water: Water conservation, water use efficiency, etc. (iii) Credit: Credit should be available at the right time, even if one does not  go to zero per cent interest rates as in China. In China, they don’t charge any interest to the farmers. This has become increasingly a question with the farmers, why can’t we have reduction in the interest rates. (iv) Technology: The technology including transfer of technology. And finally (v) Market: Market has become a very important issue, both home market and external market.

The Ministry of Agriculture has taken some important steps in getting the State Agricultural Marketing Boards. They have circulated an Act.  Some of the states have already taken some action.  But I think the  whole marketing will start with production planning.  This is why, I said earlier, about the Land Use Advisory Service. You cannot look marketing at the end alone.  There should be production in one side and market on the other.  If I know, I need five million tonnes of onion or so, then I should know the production as well as marketing of onion.  In our country, the marketing is totally looked as an isolated area and not from the production planning.  We have given a number of suggestions how to revitalize it.  So, there should be market advisory services. Farmers’ markets, we have given number of suggestions, how to revitalize it. Market planning should begin with the production planning. So, market planning should be linked to the production planning. There has to be linkages between State Land Use Board, State Marketing Board, Advisory Services, etc.  The marketing people must have a joint committee so that they should know about the dimension of the problem which they are going to face in a few months time.  The benefits of the emerging commodity future markets are that the people have idea about the present prices as well as future prices.  Even for Nokia cell phone today, you can have spot prices and the future prices.  Many of these should go into advisory services suggesting the kind of crops they should grow, the likely income, etc. Then the trade and quality literacy has become important. What kind of quality is preferred, more and more health foods, etc., even it is from the organic farmer. Many people in our country are disappointed, because they read or told that the organic produce would get high premium.  But unless they export, they don’t get it in the local market.  Therefore, you have to have a lot of advisory committees. So, to promote and initiate the ventures like E-Chaupal of ITC is important.  E-Chaupal of ITC has been certainly helpful. However, it can be further improved. Not only ITC, all of you, each fertiliser company, in your catchment, can provide services to the farmers because the Government is going to create the infrastructure, village knowledge centres etc.  Every village will be a knowledge centre. Every panchayat will be  a knowledge centre. You can add your knowledge into it.  But ultimately what kind of information you are going to give.

So, increasing our global competitiveness will depend upon our sanitary and phyto-sanitary facilities which are inadequate, resulting in the rejection in the consignments of our farm exports, including infection in fish. Food safety, quality and trade literacy including codex Alimentarious standards should be known to every farmer, not only to those who go to FAO for codex meetings.  But that knowledge should be spread to the cultivators. They should know the quality standards and so on.  Legal literacy on Breeders’ Rights and the Bio-diversity Act has become equally important.  Awareness should be generated abroad about the action taken in India to maintain very high standards of quality and a national centre for bio-security.  We talk about H5 & N1 strains of Avian flu. It is going to be a great health disaster.  WHO has already issued warnings.  We don’t know yet what is going to happen. But the fact remains whether it is SARS, HIV/AIDS, H5 and N1 strains, there is a need for much greater attention to bio-security for avoiding invasion by alien species.  You go to the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in the Pusa campus, you will find a large number of new alien invasive species of plants and weeds are coming to India with large scale imports of pulses and oilseeds.  There are bulk imports of these products, along with those, they are coming. Some of them could become very dangerous.

  So, every village should be a knowledge centre which is a simple concept.  We provide IT leadership in the world,  both in terms of software and also now hardware. Now there are kinds of computers costing only Rs. 10,000/- or so.  It is now, therefore possible to make every village as a knowledge centre. Some of you might have read my article in Hindu, a few days ago, on the overall strategy of every village as a knowledge centre.  Various Ministries, including the Department of Information and Technology, BSNL (which has broad band  connectivity over 80% area of our country), Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (in their new rural health missions are talking about E-Health). E-governance, E-health, E-Government, E-Commerce, E-Medicine must be available to everyone, not only in urban areas but also in the villages.  Therefore, every knowledge connectivity is fundamental to other forms of connectivity.  Even if  we  have an area of one crore for irrigation, to get the best out of the water, we should have proper knowledge in the area.  A  small investment in knowledge connectivity has a large pay off in other areas. The Mission 2007, i.e., August 15th 2007, marks the 60th year of our independence. We feel there is no use of quoting Mahatma Gandhi always, but what Gandhiji said, “without Ram Swaraj, you have no Purna Swaraj”.  Your full independence will come only when your people in villages are also happy and healthy. That is why every village should be a knowledge centre.  There are two  Missions 2007, one is hunger free India for which a detailed road map has been produced.  I tell you, all these are affordable.  A lot of money in our country is being wasted. Even in the case watershed, if we make a simple mechanism of bringing in some other missions there, immediately we have a multiplier effect.  A lot of it is purely in terms of management. So, connectivity is important. That can be solved.

 Content is very important.  This is an area, where you can play a role.  In your own area, you can give content about how to maximize fertiliser use efficiency, the kind of soil health, etc. Because we want to form a content consortium either at the block level or district level. If you go to a farmer, a farm house or a rural house, you will find there televisions. They have cable TVs. They have enough entertainment.  What is the use of the internet, the community radio or others, because they want to have knowledge.  Almost every part of our country is covered with cable TV.  What we need is the knowledge. Who are the knowledge providers?  Your Association and all of you individually or your companies will have to join a content consortium.  We have formed a National Alliance for Mission 2007.  There is no subscription fee, it is open ended.  Anybody who is interested to take the power of knowledge to rural India, please do join the National Alliance Mission. You are most welcome to join.  It has now about 200 members, the most broad based government departments, the state government departments, the academic departments, the IIT’s, large companies, small companies, etc.,  everyone has joined the National  Alliance Mission. In your own area, you can devote in content creation, it will be very useful.  Finally, we have requested the Ministry of Agriculture, on the basis that it is not the idea of the commission alone. Wherever we went to talk to the farmers in different parts of the country, one thing they said that there is no use of making any planning, unless the focus of the Ministry is farmers’ well-being, farmers’ livelihood security, and farmers’ income security - the security of work. You may go on planning for 500 million tonnes of production and so on but of no use. Please ask yourself why in the last 15 years, none of our targets of food production have been achieved.  We have been downsizing the target. Have any one of you discussed this, why it is so? Is it not because, we are very clever people?  But I think the cleverness should extend to address the realities: the ground realities.  If we don’t do it – the grassroot realities, we will be living in the Convention Hall of Ashok Hotel.  But the conditions will deteriorate in the farm side.  If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will go right.  Mrs. Indira Gandhi realised it.  When people asked Indira Gandhi, why she was trying to maintain 20 million tonnes, she used to say, “Our national sovereignty, and our national sovereignty depends upon our food security”.  Very few people realised that it had much larger implications.  Food security is not purely for feeding the urban population only.  It provides the livelihood of 70% of the population of our country.  Food security has brought our national and ecological security.  That is why, I salute you on your occasion of the 50th Anniversary - fifty years of golden service.

I look at the next 10/15 years, which are going to be a watershed in our agriculture.  Do we again again get back to a green revolution symphony kind of thing, where everybody will be playing its part – private, public, and farmers sectors? All of us work together with a determination that our agriculture  will be the main strength of our country. Because it caters to the well-being of the largest segment of the population.  If we don’t do that, you have already seen – the growing unrest is clear. You cannot live in two worlds of extremes – extreme poverty, extreme deprivation. In any hunger map of FAO, you see more than sub-Saharan Africa, most part of India is shown as hungry. That means they do not have enough calories. We have wonderful bright spots but we have national data as well. FAO or UN do not get data of their own. They do not have any primary data.  It is our own data.  Our own data shows that we, as a single nation with the largest number of people, will partially go to bed hungry  tonight.

On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the FAI which has helped our country genuinely in the last 50 years, I hope, in the next 10 years you will spend through to get back to the basics - to understand why things are not going as well as it should have been and introduce  development to the human being, put faces before figures.  If the Government wants to produce 200 million tonnes of foodgrains, a minimum of 200 million farmers are involved in it. Even if we have to produce one tonne more, each farmer has to be involved. Therefore, unless we put faces before the figures, we will be talking about figures only and then manipulating and modifying them all the time. That is not in the interest of any one – whether it is industry, public, producer, consumer or farmer.

We all want progress. There are great opportunities today. With all the new technologies - space technology, bio-technology, information technology, nano technology or so, it is a great new world of technological transformation. How do we  get all these benefits to the people who need them most in the form that is needed. That is a challenge. I admire, appreciate and salute all of you for the great tasks you have done. As Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru always used to say, “We have to run twice as fast to stay where we are”. The population in India is increasing by about 16-17 million every year. By 2030, we will be the largest populated country in the world crossing China. So, we have to run, go back to the basics, and go back to Nehru.

I wish you a great success, a commercial success and also a psychological success. Commercial success comes from your balance sheet. Psychological success comes from all your clients – the farmers being happy.

Thank you very much.