Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM releases Dr. M. S. Swaminathan's book "From Green to Evergreen Revolution - Indian Agriculture : Performance and Challenges"

Excerpts of PM's speech

It gives me great pleasure to be present in this function to release Dr. M.S. Swaminathan's book "From Green to Evergreen Revolution - Indian Agriculture: Performance and Challenges".

Indian agriculture owes a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Swaminathan. We all know about the immense value of his extraordinary contribution to our country's agricultural development and indeed to nation building. I would therefore not venture to say much about the legend that Dr. Swaminathan is. But what I would certainly point out is that when this great scientist says something on agriculture, especially Indian agriculture, we need to listen carefully. This book by Dr. Swaminathan provides a comprehensive roadmap for an ecologically well-founded sustainable revolution in agriculture, in other words - an evergreen revolution. I am sure that it will help all of us in understanding the complexities of the subject much better than ever before.

Agriculture and food production is much too important to be confined to narrow silos like agriculture, horticulture, fishery and animal husbandry. It needs to be looked at in an overall, integrated manner with particular attention to sustainable use of scarce land and water resources. We should not only worry about 'per hectare output' but also about livelihoods, particularly of the poor. We also need to keep the concerns of ecology and environment in mind. Special attention has to be paid to improving the productivity of small and marginal farmers and of dry land agriculture.The role of science and technology in the transformation of agriculture needs to be emphasized. Each one of our villages has to become a knowledge centre as a pathway to rural prosperity. Then there are issues of culture and tradition - note the innumerable local cultivars of rice and millets. These are the kinds of subjects that Dr. Swaminathan's book addresses, and provides solutions and policy prescriptions that we all need to take note of.

When our government came to power in 2004, we started work to reverse the trend of low public investment in agriculture. The access of farmers to farm credit was enhanced substantially. We increased the support prices much more than ever in the past. We tried to give a new focus to agriculture policy following the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers, which was headed by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan. Special programmes for agriculture, irrigation and rural infrastructure were started. The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana a unique programme based on decentralized planning was launched. This programme has shown good results. The National Food Security Mission, a Rs. 5,000 crore initiative, has also shown success in increasing the production and productivity of rice, wheat and pulses in select areas. These and other efforts contributed to an increase in our agricultural growth. However, the drought of 2009 was a setback which we are now recovering from. In recent months, the challenges posed by food price inflation have again brought into sharp focus the issues of production and productivity of food crops. We have set up a Core Group of Central Ministers and State Chief Ministers regarding prices of essential commodities. I hope that, the recommendations of the Group will help us in addressing this issue.

Our policy of providing very remunerative prices for agricultural products, through increase in MSP, has resulted in increased public procurement. This has posed a serious challenge to the food grain storage infrastructure. We need to move towards an agile food procurement and distribution policy that can respond to the market quickly so that prices do not fall to the extent of hurting the farmer or rise to the extent of hurting the consumer. We need to adopt a holistic approach in discussing issues related to national food security.

The quality of inputs is a major factor that constrains growth in productivity of agriculture. Our Govt. has introduced bills to amend the Seeds Act and the Pesticides Act to contribute in addressing this issue. Climate change has also created new challenges for our agriculture. Dr. Swaminathan dwells on this issue in his book. In fact, over 20 years ago he and his colleague scientists had demonstrated that an increase of 1% in the night temperature reduced the yield of wheat by 4 to 5 quintals per hectare. I hope that the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture will help us in tackling this challenge.

Dr. Swaminathan's book is timely and it will undoubtedly help policy makers, planners and farmers focus on increasing the sustainability of farm livelihoods, particularly in the background of the challenges posed by climate change, rising food and commodity prices, demand for bio-fuels and environmental degradation. I congratulate Dr. Swaminathan for this effort and marvel at his genius and commitment to causes that are of critical importance to our country. On a personal note, I have benefitted immensely from Dr. Swaminathan's advice and guidance on many occasions. I hope to do so in the future also. I also hope that Indian agriculture will continue to have his guidance and wise counsel. We are all so very fortunate to have a person of his ability and stature to help us. Let me end by once again applauding Dr. Swaminathan's many achievements, including this book of great value to everyone who has a stake or interest in Indian agriculture.