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Union Agriculture Minister Shri Sharad Pawar today threw challenge to scientists to attain a golden revolution on the lines of green and white revolutions achieved since independence.
Addressing the 75th Annual General Meeting of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Minister said that we must harness the rich diversity of horticultural crops in the country. Comparing low productivity of crops such as potato and fruits in India with that of other countries, the Minister called for an all-round strategy for improving horticultural production. The issues of storage, packaging, transportation, processing and value addition will need to be addressed, the Minister emphasized.
The Minister reminded the research community of the challenges that it must address on priority. Besides raising the productivity of crops and livestock, he said, high priority must be given to finding ways to reduce the cost of production. The third challenge is to provide quality planting material to farmers at reasonable prices, Shri Pawar said.
The Minister stressed the need to orient farm research towards the need of the market. In the competitive market farmers will be able to reap wealth only if they are supported with the relevant research. He said that unless, besides research, agricultural research and extension services will need to be re-oriented, only then we will be able to deal with the problem of unemployment among the agricultural graduates and ignorance among farmers.
Shri Sharad Pawar also asked scientists to work on rainfed/dryland agriculture through generation of locally suitable and eco-friendly production technologies to bring about second green revolution. Evolving high yielding stress tolerant varieties/hybrids/breeds, promoting Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Plant Nutrient Systems (IPNS), and low external input and sustainable agricultural system must become basic component of any farming system being adopted. He said we must also keep country’s traditional farming knowledge in mind while promoting newer technologies. Technological gaps between productivity and potential areas like the Eastern and North Eastern Regions should be bridged properly, Shri Pawar said.
While presenting the Annual Report for the year 2004, Dr. Mangala Rai, Director General, ICAR, said that the country’s premier agricultural research institute has collected 12,000 accessions of crops and their wild relatives from different parts of the country. During the year over one hundred improved varieties/breeds of crops/livestock and fish were evolved and more than 40, 000 quintals of breeder seed was produced. He elaborated the research works in the fields of horticulture, Natural Resource Management, Livestock and Poultry Improvement and Management, Fish Production and Processing, Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Agricultural Human Resource Development and other related subjects. By the end of 10th Plan, he said, ICAR would provide one Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in each district of the country.
The Annual General Meeting was attended by Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Kanti Lal Bhuria, Minister of State for Planning Shri MV Rajasekharan, Ministers for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Vice Chancellors, heads of agricultural universities and institutes from various states and senior officials from the Ministry.
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