Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution addressed the Economic Editors Conference, 2010 here today. Here is the full text of Minister’s speech:
It gives me great pleasure to participate in the Economic Editors’ Conference as this provides us with an opportunity to share with you the initiatives that we have taken our successes and challenges that lie ahead in the field of agriculture, food management and consumer related matters. Your feedback based on ground realities would be an important input to improve the implementation of our existing schemes/programmes and to formulate future strategies.
Despite all media speculation you would have realized that I still retain all my portfolios and therefore for me to talk in detail about all the five departments under me would be extremely tedious and perhaps leave very little time for your questions. My office has already circulated the background note on the performance of the various departments and I have decided to limit myself to only the salient and important issues in my opening remarks.
As you are aware, agriculture sector supports about 60% of the workforce but contributes only about 15 per cent to national output which is a pointer towards the low income levels among the people engaged in agriculture. This can only be reversed (a) by increasing productivity in agriculture and (b) providing income enhancing opportunities in areas other than crop development. The first requires higher investments, infusion of technology, more credit in the hands of the farmer, adequate risk cover for him, easy access to markets and remunerative prices for his produce. The other has to be tackled by helping the farmer derive income through horticulture activities, animal husbandry and fisheries. Both will have to be backed by necessary support services through effective extension and knowledge dissemination and adequate agricultural infrastructure.
Bulk of the people engaged in agriculture is also our targeted population under the Public Distribution Scheme. Recently food procurement and storage has been under immense media scrutiny and I will speak on these issues in greater detail a little later in my speech. At this stage, I would just like to mention that the issues are complex and the government is working out the most judicious solution for feeding the nation and especially it’s poor. Price inflation of food articles has also been a matter of great debate and concern. We have taken many steps to insulate the common man from the burden of rising prices, especially for essential commodities and I shall also elaborate upon them.
Coming to agriculture first, we have over the last few years been channelizing our efforts through effective policy instruments and programmes to ensure higher investments – both public and private. We have concentrated on enhancing production and productivity both by bringing in high yielding varieties, hybrids and efficient farm equipments. Our efforts towards increasing soil nutrients have seen to the new fertilizer subsidy regime. We have also worked on easing the availability of credit to the farmer and offering better risk mitigation instruments. You are already aware of the Cabinet clearing the new Seeds Bill which we propose to introduce in the ensuing session of the Parliament. The provisions of the Bill will prove an effective check on the spurious and substandard seeds being sold in the market. Simultaneously, the strategy has also been to provide the necessary infrastructure such as soil testing laboratories; water harvesting and micro irrigation structures; storage and processing facilities; sophisticated pest surveillance and monitoring systems; and IT-enabled knowledge dissemination systems for the farmers.
These strategies have clearly worked. The country achieved record food production of 234 million tons in 2008-09; a substantial jump from the production of about 198 million tons of food grains in 2004-05. That the interventions have worked was also borne out last year when, despite the severest drought in the past four decades, the production of food grains stood at about 218 million tons. This year, overall rainfall has been good and we are estimating record production in Kharif pulses, sugarcane and cotton. However, due to deficit rainfall in Bihar, Jharkhand and parts of West Bengal there is likelihood of some loss in paddy area. Due to the good South West monsoon, reservoir levels are very comfortable and soil moisture levels are high, promising a record production year.
Some of the measures that we have taken in the recent past need further elaboration.
As I mentioned at the outset, investment plays an important role in achieving higher growth rate. In recent years there has been an increase in the gross capital formation in agriculture as a proportion of agricultural GDP which has gone up from 14.1 per cent in 2004-05 to 21.3 in 2008-09. The plan outlay for the agriculture & allied sector has increased substantially from Rs.7, 431crore in 2006-07 to Rs.19, 070 crore in 2010-11, an increase of about 156%.
The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), launched in August 2007, has become the principal instrument for increasing the States’ investment in agriculture and allied sectors. Outlay under RKVY for 2010-11 have been substantially increased to Rs. 6,722 crore, which includes Rs. 400 crore for “Extending Green Revolution to the Eastern Region of India” and Rs. 300 crore for the ‘Special Initiative for Pulses and Oilseeds in Dry-land Areas by Organising 60,000 Pulses and Oilseeds Villages in rainfed areas. States have taken up major programmes for increasing production and productivity and made investments across all sectors of agriculture and allied sector comprising Crop Development, Watershed Development, Pest Management & Testing Labs, Micro / Minor Irrigation, Agri. Mechanization, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.
Another path breaking programme has been the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) which was launched in 2007-08 to enhance the production of rice, wheat and pulses by 10 million tons, 8 million tons and 2 million tons respectively by the end of the 11th Plan. The Mission has helped to widen the food basket of the country with significant contributions coming from the NFSM districts. During 2008-09 nearly 50% of the NFSM rice districts, 50% of NFSM pulses districts and 33% of NFSM wheat districts have recorded 10-20% increase in productivity compared to 2006-07.
To address the issues of water resource development, utilization and management for sustainable food grain production in the country, a Task Force was constituted in December, 2009 to make recommendations for efficient management of water, power and other inputs, as well as subsidy to maximize agricultural production on a sustainable basis. The Task Force has observed, inter alia, that Eastern India receives 2-3 times more rain compared to North Western States and it has tremendous opportunities to utilize good quality untapped ground water for enhancing productivity which is in fact is the fulcrum around which the recently launched programme of ‘Extending Green Revolution to the Eastern Region’ revolves.
You will all be aware that India is the second largest producer of fruits and for vegetables. My Ministry is promoting Horticulture in mission mode for improving farm incomes and livelihood security and enhancing employment generation. Due to interventions under the National Horticulture Mission and Technology Mission for North Eastern States the production of fruits, vegetables and spices has increased by 27%, 22% and 12% respectively during 2009-10 over 2005-06.
I am also happy to inform you that the Terminal Markets Complex (TMC) Scheme of government has finally taken off. We have approved the proposal for setting up TMC in Bihar and the proposals for Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are also expected to be approved shortly. These markets would provide state-of-art facilities for electronic auction, storage, handling and providing offline backward and forward linkages to agriculture produce.
Price signals are an extremely effective tool for increasing agricultural production and productivity. Government has increased the MSP of major crops such as paddy, wheat and pulses by as much as 78.6%, 75% and 124.8% respectively between 2004-05 and 2010-11. The increases in MSP of paddy and wheat have resulted in record production and procurement of wheat and rice during the last two years. The substantial hike in MSP of kharif pulses is showing results this kharif season with increase in estimated production of kharif pulses from about 4.3 million tonnes in 2009 to 6 million tonnes in 2010.
Another necessary input for enabling farmers to increase their production is agricultural credit. A decision was taken by the Government in June, 2004 to double the flow of agriculture credit in three years with reference to base year 2003-04. The flow of agriculture credit since 2003-04 has consistently exceeded the target. From the level of Rs 86,981 crore credit flow in 2003-04, the agriculture credit disbursed in 2009-10 has touched Rs. 3,66,919 crore. The target of credit flow for 2010-11 is Rs. 3, 75,000 crore. From this year onwards credit is available @ 5% rate of interest for those making timely repayment.
We all know that Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries sectors play a significant role in supplementing family incomes and generating gainful employment in the rural areas, particularly, among the landless labourers, small and marginal farmers and women. Livestock is the best possible insurance against the vagaries of nature like drought, famine and other natural calamities. The value of output from livestock and fisheries sectors together accounts for about 27 per cent of the value of the output from Agriculture & allied Sector during 2008-09.
India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world. The estimate of milk production for 2009-10 was 112 million tons. Egg production during the same period were 59.8 billion nos., wool production was 43.2 million kgs. Fish production during 2009-10 was 78.52 lakh tons comprising of 29.89 lakh tons from marine resources and 48.62 lakh tons from freshwater resources.
To build a resilient agriculture and allied sector research plays a pivotal role. While ICAR through its network of institutions has done a commendable job over the last few decades, more recently their success has been in :
· Releasing eight varieties of wheat for different eco-systems;
· Releasing three Maize hybrids and 2 composites. Maize cultivation technology in upland fallows of Bastar region was introduced that enhanced productivity by 3-4 times.
· Poultry breeds with 300 eggs/year has been developed;
· In Animal biotechnology under cloned buffalo, two female calves Garima I&II and male calf Shresth, have been successfully born at NDRI, Karnal. The technique will enable faster multiplication of highly productive animals with desired sex;
· Appropriate stress-resistant varieties of crops are being developed. Research on protected horticulture is also being undertaken.
· A state of the art National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Maharashtra has been established during XI Plan.
· National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture along with the ongoing ICAR network on Climate Change that involves 25 centers across the country has been launched. The initiative is an attempt to develop and popularize climate resilient technologies in agriculture.
I am sure these successes and other ongoing research will help our agriculture and other allied sectors grow and become more productive to cope with constantly increasing demand of all food articles.
The rising demand coupled with higher purchasing power with the rural poor coupled with some supply side constraints saw 2009-10 witness a spurt in the prices of food articles. However, the overall availability of essential commodities has generally remained satisfactory. Inflation in food articles has been a matter of concern and the Government of India have taken several steps to arrest the increase in prices of essential commodities and improve domestic availability of essential commodities -
· Reducing/waiving import duties for rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils, sugar, maize and refined/hydrogenated oils and vegetable oils;
· Allowing import of raw/white/refined sugar at zero duty without levy obligation;
· Banning export of edible oils and pulses;
· Provision of Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane to provide reasonable margin to farmers on account of risk and profit.
· Permitting Public Sector Undertakings to import and sell pulses under a scheme in which losses would be reimbursed by the Government;
· Distributing imported pulses to State Governments for supply through PDS at a subsidy.
Our main concern is to ensure the availability of food grain for the public distribution system so that the impact of inflation on the common man is minimised. There has been increased procurement of food grain in the recent years. We expect that we will be able to fully meet the demand of the public distribution system and other welfare schemes. Our procurement of food grain this year has been a record high of 57.4 million metric tons.
I am aware that there has been significant criticism from various quarters mainly on the issue of storage of food grains. Though it has been our endeavour to achieve zero damage, some constraints stop us from achieving this. The biggest constraint has been the lack of adequate covered storage space with FCI and the State Governments. I am happy to inform you that to right this wrong the government has initiated a public private initiative for building of godowns all across the country. We expect to create 150 lakh metric tons of storage space all across the country for which the tenders have already been floated and are receiving tremendous response.
The silver lining however has been on the food production and procurement side. I have already spoken about the advances in agriculture production & productivity. Coupled with it, the procurement level which had stagnated at some 35 million tons has increased to an average of around 55 million tons over the last couple of years. This is of great significance in view of the forthcoming Food Security Act. The NAC has been deliberating on the Act and we are awaiting a formal communication from them in this regard. I have read about the recommendations in the press but at this stage it will be presumptive on my part to say what shape this Act will finally take. However, irrespective of the fine print, it is certain that our outgo from the PDS will increase substantially from its current level once the Act is implemented. The distribution of food grains through PDS which was just 120 lakh tons in 2001-02 has already jumped to 438 lakh tons today, mainly on account of the increased population as well as the favourable pricing policy under the PDS. We have as you very well know, not increased the Central Issue Price of rice and wheat since 2002 despite the huge jump in our procurement cost. Our social commitment can be best seen through the 80% subsidy element in the food grain distributed under AAY and approx 73% and 60% in case of BPL and APL. This has had a sobering influence on the prices of wheat and rice which today, are perhaps, the lowest in the whole world. Hand in hand with procurement we have also launched a drive to streamline the delivery system under the PDS in collaboration with the State Governments. The Smart Card pilot has been successfully tested in Haryana and is ready to be rolled out nationwide. We are in consultation with the UID to effectively dovetail the “Aadhar” numbers with our ration cards. This may take some time, but once done it will go a long way in checking diversion and ensuring the delivery of food grain to the targeted population.
On the sugar front too, the news this year is good with record plantation of sugarcane, I am confident of 250 lakh tons of sugar production this sugar year. We have over the last few years worked and successfully delivered good returns to the sugarcane farmers. The introduction of FRP has ensured a minimum 20% return to the farmers besides covering their costs and risks. The response from the farming community has been overwhelming and I am happy to announce that like wheat and rice, the price of sugar in India is amongst the lowest. For the first time India is producing sugar in surplus while there is a shortage world over.
We are in the process of further strengthening this sector through our decontrol policy which is in the making and which is being tailored to assure much better returns to the farmers through a price sharing formula. I will be glad to share these details with you once the consultations are over and the department’s proposal is cleared by the cabinet.
Before I end, let me assure you, and through you the whole nation that we stand committed to the development of our farmers and betterment of our consumers. The interest of the weakest section shall always remain foremost in our heart and uppermost in our mind.
MP:SB:eec2010
(Release ID :66617)
No comments:
Post a Comment