India's President Calls for Enhancing Crop Productivity in the Second Green Revolution

Delivering the ICAR foundation day lecture in New Delhi, President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil called for keeping agriculture at the center stage of the nation’s development agenda to constantly enhance crop productivity. The President hailed India's initiative to establish one of the world’s largest and well organized gene bank of crop genetic resources and recognized that agricultural growth would also depend upon technological inputs relating to water management systems, better seeds and farming practices. She called upon ICAR, State Agricultural Universities (SAU) and the industry to join hands to develop new technologies and intensify linkages with the public and private extension systems at all levels, particularly at the district and lower levels where the actual uptake and impact is seen.

 In the same forum, elaborating the growth of Indian agriculture over the years, Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Sharad Pawar lauded efforts to increase food grains production from 51 million tones in 1950-51 to an all time record harvest of 231 million tones of foodgrains in 2007-08. The four-fold increase in the production was achieved even if the sown area has remained practically static, around 140 million ha since 1970, of which more than two-thirds is rainfed. "The new tools of biotechnology and other frontier sciences offer exciting opportunities in agriculture for improving farm productivity, production and quality in order to meet the challenges of feeding a nation with a billion plus population, while sustaining the environment and ensuring higher returns for the farmer, " said Mr Pawar.

A copy of the speech by the President of India and the Minister of Agriculture is available at: http://www.icar.org.in/news/ICAR-Foundation-Day.htm and http://www.icar.org.in/AM-Speech-16-07-08.pdf For more information about biotech development in India contact: b.choudhary@isaaa.org and k.gaur@cgiar.org