Pratibha suggests revival plan for agriculture

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) Expressing concern over poor growth of Indian agriculture with the Green Revolution runs its course, President Pratibha Patil today said a well-planned diversification strategy should be persued with regard to crops, horticulture, livestock, poultry, fishery and off-farm enterprises.

''The government's agricultural strategies should not only be pro-poor and pro-nature but also pro-women", she said in her maiden public speech as President while delivering a special lecture on 'Agriculture Cannot Wait' on 60th anniversary of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS).

The crop diversification is must both for production and consumption. The current narrow food basket should also include local cereals, millets, sorghum, legumes, tuber crops, vegetables and fruits to combat hunger, she added.

For this purpose, Mrs Patil said, ''We should involve farmers, village panchayats alongwith agricultural research institutions for sustainable agricultural development. Involving of women, particularly for resource and bio-diversity conservation and management and regeneration of wastelands have a high pay off.

The President said there was an urgent need of taking up some new policy initiatives to bridge the farm yield gaps among the states by the use of IT, supply of hybrid seeds, harnessing latest technological advances, better post-harvest management and easy credit flow to farm sector on low interest rates.

Enumerating problems plaguing the farm sector, she said the post Green Revolution era had witnessed exhaustion of hybrid seeds and technology, unbalanced use of fertilizer leading to degradation of land quality and soil leading to low productivity. The diminishing land size was also coupled with emergence of new pests and diseases and production losses due to biotic and abiotic.

Speaking on the same subject FAO Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf said India had made a most remarkable progress in reducing the prevalence of undernourishment and hunger from 39 per cent to 20 per cent.

However, despite that, more than 500 million of the world's hungry live in Asia with India sharing a one-fourth of them.

For halving the number of hungry, India has to strengthen its agriculture which is the mainstay for 70 per cent of poor in rural areas.

The FAO DG suggested that India should enhance the public investment on agriculture which should be matching to the economic importance of the sector. Besides, gaps in infrastructure, input markets, extension system and credit be plugged.

He, however, advocated opening of national agricultural markets to international competition to offset the local negative effects that undermine foor security required for peace and stability of a country.

UNI