NEW DELHI (INDIA): India’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh today here inaugurate the Golden Jubilee of Green Revolution celebration.Singh said that it is a proud moment for Indian agriculture when we have assembled here to commemorate the advent of Green Revolution in India.
Further Minister said that after the green revolution years today once again Indian agriculture is on cross roads with new challenges of development. Our major challenges are depletion and degradation of natural resources, drop in the water table, reduction in flow of water in rivers, lakes, biotic and abiotic stresses, climatic change etc. Today we need to develop such strategies that will lead to sustainable productivity gains and also profitability of farming. To sustain krishi as a profession, we need to attract youth towards agriculture.
“It is a matter of pleasure for India that today we are not only self sufficient in foodgrains but also exporter of food items, whereas we were importing foodgrains for our food security and Indian agriculture was given begging bowl status in the world. Following the Green Revolution, out foodgrain production that was 82 MT in 1960-61 has touched 264 MT by 2013-14. In this period the rice production increased from 34 MT to our 100 MT.
“Simultaneously, the wheat production which was 11 MT is now over 90 MT. At national level the average productivity of rice which was 1013 kg per ha. is now above 2500 kg per ha,” the minister said.
“Similarly, the productivity of wheat also has gone up fron 850 kg/ha to over 3000 kg/ha in the corresponding period. Thereafter, Indian agriculture witnessed an all round development as a result of which horticulture production is now over 280 MT, milk production about 140 MT, fisheries 9.5 MT and eggs are about 73 billion. These achievements have placed India among the leading producer of these food items,” he added.
“The success of green revolution in India proved wrong the theories of Malthus and economists who said that India would suffer on account of poverty and technological backwardness. Several countries in the world are now trying to adopt the Green Revolution model of India for their respective agricultural development,” he added.
“The discovery and use of Norin-10 gene by late Dr. Normal Borlaug in developing dwarf and high yielding wheat varieties laid the foundation of green revolution. Under the leadership of Hon’ble M.S. Swaminathan, the Mexican wheat were received in India and also developed Sonora-64 to suit the Indian agro climatic conditions,” the minister said.
“In this journey of agricultural developments, we congratulate the Nobel laureate late Dr. Norman Borlaug, India’s renowned agriculture scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan along with all the agriculture researchers, extension workers and above all the farmers in the country,” Singh said.
“After the green revolution years today once again Indian agriculture is on cross roads with new challenges of development. Our major challenges are depletion and degradation of natural resources, drop in the water table, reduction in flow of water in rivers, lakes, biotic and abiotic stresses, climatic change etc. Today we need to develop such strategies that will lead to sustainable productivity gains and also profitability of farming. To sustain krishi as a profession, we need to attract youth towards agriculture,” he added.
“It is generally believe that the benefits of green revolution were confined to areas with better natural endowments and the rainfed areas could not benefit as much. The rainfed areas today contribute about 60% to the agricultural production. Therefore, we need to focus on water management and conservation in these areas,” he added.
“Over 50% of our agricultural import budget is used in pulses and oilseeds only. Looking to the consumption patterns we need to develop such farming systems that besides safeguarding rice, wheat systems also include production of pulses and oilseeds,” Singh said.
“It is time for second green revolution in the country and we believe that this can happen from the eastern states of our country. We have already taken several initiatives in research and development to achieve this goal. ICAR has launched Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav and Farmer FIRST wherein our agricultural scientists will adopt the villages and will directly interface with the farmers to solve their problems,” according to Singh.
“This year the Cabinet has also approved Rs. 3900 crores in the XII Plan for continuation and further strengthening of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) in the country. In this proposal 109 new KVKs and three new Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARI) have also been approved. This will enable KVKs in improving their outreach programmes and helping the farmers,” the minister said.
“The ICAR has also established IARI, Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi during this year. At the same time, the ICAR has established National Research Centre for Integrated Farming, Motihari to further strengthen the agricultural research for the Eastern Region. The Rajendra Agricultural University at Pusa, Bihar is also being converted to Central Agricultural University (CAU) for which a MoU has been signed with the State Government,” he added.
The Central Agricultural University, Imphal has been sanctioned six new Colleges for the North Eastern States that will raise the total number of colleges under the University from 7 to 13. It is also planned to establish a new CAU at Barapani, Meghalaya. The ICAR has launched Attracting & Retaining Youth in Agriculture (ARYA) and Student READY schemes that will improve skill development amongst agricultural graduates and prepare them to take up agri-entrepreneurship.
“The government has already launched Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) for seven eastern states and in the last two years Rs. 1000 crores have been allocated for further strengthening it. The government has also launched Paramparagat Krishi Yojna, Soil Health Card Scheme, Pradhanmantri Krishi Sichai Yojna, Chaman for horticultural development, National Agri-tech Infrastructure Fund,” Singh said.
“Our National Agricultural policy has set a target of 4% growth in agriculture. We are very close to achieving it, but certain impediments have come in form of natural calamities. However, we are striving towards achieving this goal and we are hopeful that with the collective efforts we will be able to achieve this target,” Singh.
The Institutions like NAAS are a rich source of intellect and experience especially with regard to agricultural research and development. We call upon the esteemed fellowship of NAAS to provide us their view and inputs regarding growth and development of agriculture especially in respect of improving resource use efficiency, attracting rural youth in agriculture, sustaining productivity, improving quality and standard of higher agricultural education, skill development, extension of technologies to farmers using ICTs and commercialization of agriculture.
“Finally I once again congratulate the agricultural scientists, extension workers, policy planners, farmers and other stakeholders on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of Green Revolution,” he added.
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