Agriculture & Food Processing Industries Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar today (June 18, 2013) called for strengthening international research institutions and sharing knowledge so as to realise higher yield potential of different crops.
The Minister was addressing FAO Conference at Rome.
Shri Pawar also highlighted India’s recent initiatives in the field of agriculture that have led to more than 3.5% growth in the last five years.
Following is the full text of the speech given by the Minister at the FAO Conference:
“Mr. Chairperson, DG FAO and distinguished Delegates,
I thank you for giving me an opportunity to address this august gathering. Let me use the same to share India’s experience in agriculture development and also to comment on the work planned by FAO in the coming two years.
I begin by complimenting Director General FAO and his team for making excellent arrangements for the Conference and for proposing an agenda which focuses on the key issues that impact global food security and sustainable agriculture development. I am confident that we would all benefit from the knowledge exchange and experience sharing for crafting a more involved plan of action for FAO in its endeavor to achieve food and nutritional security for all and thereby improving the socio economic status of our farming community.
Friends, agriculture is a critical sector of Indian economy, providing employment to nearly 60% of our population. Nearly sixty percent of our cropped area is rainfed with no assured source of irrigation which inhibits the realization of full yield potential. It is challenging to meet the demands of our growing population for food, feed, fibre and fuel with limited natural resources, mainly land and water, and more frequent climatic variability.
We have embarked on a path breaking journey to intensify support to our farmers, 85% of whom have operational holdings below 2 hectares. We have initiated a slew of policy and programmatic measures to increase investment in Agriculture, create opportunities for private sector through marketing reforms and launched a focus on food security in a mission mode approach for increasing production of food.
I am pleased to inform you that our efforts over the years have met with resounding success. We have achieved an overall agricultural growth of more than 3.5% per annum during the last five years. We are setting new records in production of food grains year after year. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the food basket of the country has been widened with increasing share coming from relatively under developed regions. Not only have we been able to meet the demand of 17% of global population residing in India, but have exported nearly 20 million tonne of foodgrains, thus becoming a major contributor to the world food basket.
While efforts are being made to bridge the yield gaps to increase agricultural production, it is a matter of concern that there is stagnation in realizing the higher yield potential in different crops. New technological tools especially through genetic engineering need to be employed more aggressively to build tolerance to various abiotic and biotic stresses that inhibit crop yields. Research products made available as a result should be easily accessible and affordable to all. In this regard, we call for strengthening the CGIAR institutions for generating significant technological innovations that could then be easily adapted and up scaled by the National Agriculture Research Systems.
A lot is happening in other spheres of our rural economy as well, through increased investments for developing Human Resources by way of Right to Education, Health and Employment for All, and by creating new institutions that enable the rural population to take advantage of the high economic growth of the country. We are now poised to enact a National Food Security Act which will legally entitle about two third population of the country, that is, nearly 800 million people to have access to adequate quantities of foodgrains at very affordable prices through a revamped Public Distribution System. The new law will also contain provisions for nutritional security of children, pregnant women & lactating mothers including mandatory maternity benefits to them for a period of six months. This is going to be the world’s largest food and nutrition security programme.
Despite several challenges, Indian agriculture has made tremendous strides. We will be happy to share India’s success stories with other developing countries. We continue to assure our support to FAO in all its endeavours for promoting South-South Cooperation.
We look up to FAO as a knowledge repository and a natural apolitical ally for addressing global challenges in Agriculture. It is also a very useful platform for sharing of best practices across different countries for cross learning and mutual benefit in development efforts of each country. In this context, I would like to acknowledge the recent initiatives of the FAO secretariat in devolving more funds for supporting technical cooperation programs and focusing on country specific strategies and partnerships by strengthening the FAO country offices. These are important first steps to make knowledge generated by FAO truly relevant and meaningful to meet the specific needs of individual countries. India welcomes such long overdue initiatives and looks forward to a more fruitful association with FAO in the coming times.
We are committed to strengthening the newly launched Agriculture Market Information System hosted in FAO under the G20 Action Plan on Agriculture. We are now regularly publishing periodical reports in the form of Agricultural Outlook of select commodities where situation analysis and forecasts are presented in the short and the medium terms. We are grateful to FAO for supporting this initiative with technical assistance on international exposure and capacity building. We believe that informed decisions based on sound analysis help develop better understanding of food situation internationally and locally.
I would like to conclude by saying that on the basis of our experience in recent years, we are convinced that only a country led agriculture development plan with liberal investments in creating the needed Rural and Agriculture infrastructure supported by strong R&D and an innovative programmatic formulation and implementation approaches for technology transfers to farmers is the right strategy to sustain agriculture development and ensure food and nutritional security.
We endorse the strategic objectives guiding the development of plan of action of FAO as most of the elements contained in these objectives are in consonance with what we are practicing in India. The DG has rightly emphasised on the need to completely eradicate hunger from the face of this earth. His work programme and the budget need the fullest support from all member nations. We hope that the conference would accord its administrative and financial approval to the proposal of the Director General to carry out the plan of action finalized at the end of this conference.”
Courtesy: pib.nic.in (Press Information Bureau)
The Minister was addressing FAO Conference at Rome.
Shri Pawar also highlighted India’s recent initiatives in the field of agriculture that have led to more than 3.5% growth in the last five years.
Following is the full text of the speech given by the Minister at the FAO Conference:
“Mr. Chairperson, DG FAO and distinguished Delegates,
I thank you for giving me an opportunity to address this august gathering. Let me use the same to share India’s experience in agriculture development and also to comment on the work planned by FAO in the coming two years.
I begin by complimenting Director General FAO and his team for making excellent arrangements for the Conference and for proposing an agenda which focuses on the key issues that impact global food security and sustainable agriculture development. I am confident that we would all benefit from the knowledge exchange and experience sharing for crafting a more involved plan of action for FAO in its endeavor to achieve food and nutritional security for all and thereby improving the socio economic status of our farming community.
Friends, agriculture is a critical sector of Indian economy, providing employment to nearly 60% of our population. Nearly sixty percent of our cropped area is rainfed with no assured source of irrigation which inhibits the realization of full yield potential. It is challenging to meet the demands of our growing population for food, feed, fibre and fuel with limited natural resources, mainly land and water, and more frequent climatic variability.
We have embarked on a path breaking journey to intensify support to our farmers, 85% of whom have operational holdings below 2 hectares. We have initiated a slew of policy and programmatic measures to increase investment in Agriculture, create opportunities for private sector through marketing reforms and launched a focus on food security in a mission mode approach for increasing production of food.
I am pleased to inform you that our efforts over the years have met with resounding success. We have achieved an overall agricultural growth of more than 3.5% per annum during the last five years. We are setting new records in production of food grains year after year. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the food basket of the country has been widened with increasing share coming from relatively under developed regions. Not only have we been able to meet the demand of 17% of global population residing in India, but have exported nearly 20 million tonne of foodgrains, thus becoming a major contributor to the world food basket.
While efforts are being made to bridge the yield gaps to increase agricultural production, it is a matter of concern that there is stagnation in realizing the higher yield potential in different crops. New technological tools especially through genetic engineering need to be employed more aggressively to build tolerance to various abiotic and biotic stresses that inhibit crop yields. Research products made available as a result should be easily accessible and affordable to all. In this regard, we call for strengthening the CGIAR institutions for generating significant technological innovations that could then be easily adapted and up scaled by the National Agriculture Research Systems.
A lot is happening in other spheres of our rural economy as well, through increased investments for developing Human Resources by way of Right to Education, Health and Employment for All, and by creating new institutions that enable the rural population to take advantage of the high economic growth of the country. We are now poised to enact a National Food Security Act which will legally entitle about two third population of the country, that is, nearly 800 million people to have access to adequate quantities of foodgrains at very affordable prices through a revamped Public Distribution System. The new law will also contain provisions for nutritional security of children, pregnant women & lactating mothers including mandatory maternity benefits to them for a period of six months. This is going to be the world’s largest food and nutrition security programme.
Despite several challenges, Indian agriculture has made tremendous strides. We will be happy to share India’s success stories with other developing countries. We continue to assure our support to FAO in all its endeavours for promoting South-South Cooperation.
We look up to FAO as a knowledge repository and a natural apolitical ally for addressing global challenges in Agriculture. It is also a very useful platform for sharing of best practices across different countries for cross learning and mutual benefit in development efforts of each country. In this context, I would like to acknowledge the recent initiatives of the FAO secretariat in devolving more funds for supporting technical cooperation programs and focusing on country specific strategies and partnerships by strengthening the FAO country offices. These are important first steps to make knowledge generated by FAO truly relevant and meaningful to meet the specific needs of individual countries. India welcomes such long overdue initiatives and looks forward to a more fruitful association with FAO in the coming times.
We are committed to strengthening the newly launched Agriculture Market Information System hosted in FAO under the G20 Action Plan on Agriculture. We are now regularly publishing periodical reports in the form of Agricultural Outlook of select commodities where situation analysis and forecasts are presented in the short and the medium terms. We are grateful to FAO for supporting this initiative with technical assistance on international exposure and capacity building. We believe that informed decisions based on sound analysis help develop better understanding of food situation internationally and locally.
I would like to conclude by saying that on the basis of our experience in recent years, we are convinced that only a country led agriculture development plan with liberal investments in creating the needed Rural and Agriculture infrastructure supported by strong R&D and an innovative programmatic formulation and implementation approaches for technology transfers to farmers is the right strategy to sustain agriculture development and ensure food and nutritional security.
We endorse the strategic objectives guiding the development of plan of action of FAO as most of the elements contained in these objectives are in consonance with what we are practicing in India. The DG has rightly emphasised on the need to completely eradicate hunger from the face of this earth. His work programme and the budget need the fullest support from all member nations. We hope that the conference would accord its administrative and financial approval to the proposal of the Director General to carry out the plan of action finalized at the end of this conference.”
Courtesy: pib.nic.in (Press Information Bureau)
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