4^th Agriculture Leadership Summit 2011

With the increasing population and deteriorating environment, one of the biggest concerns of the present time is the food security. There is no other means but agriculture growth which can lead us to food security. Policies, schemes and programmes are the need of the hour to meet the demands of agriculture sector. Farmers are the section of the society who need special focus today. Taking this major concern into consideration, the 4th Agriculture Leadership Summit was organized by Agriculture Today to discuss the issue of ‘Policy Reforms for Farm Growth.”

The 4th Agriculture Leadership Summit was organized by Agriculture Today www.agriculturetoday.in on 14th September, 2011 at Taj Palce, New Delhi. The summit was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs, Prof KV Thomas in the gracious presence of Prof YK Alagh, former Union Minister and Chairman, IRMA; Prof MS Swaminathan, pioneer of India’s Green Revolution; Dr RK Kusumariya, Agriculture Minister, Madhya Pradesh; and Sh B.K Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

The event started with a welcome note by Dr MJ Khan, Chief Editor, Agriculture Today. In his speech, Dr Khan welcomed the honorary guests and spoke about the challenges faced by Indian agriculture. He said that ‘Agriculture Today’ will continue its commitment towards the Indian farmers.

Prof Thomas, in his address congratulated Agriculture Today for organizing the event. He spoke about various aspects of Indian agriculture. He talked about the proposed food security bill in detail. “The Food Security Bill proposed to be introduced in the next session of parliament will be a historic step,” said the minister. Prof Thomas said that several steps have been taken by his ministry to make the proposed bill a success. He added that while taking these steps, the ministry has taken in consideration the recommendations of both National Advisory Council (NAC) and Economic Advisory Council (EAC). “Food security is not only about providing food grains but it is also about providing nutrition,” said Prof Thomas. Another main area of concern in the agriculture sector in the country as said by the minister is ‘storage’. He said that the ministry is working on different mechanisms of food storage and that various programmes and policies have been formulated regarding this aspect. He said that the Public Distribution System (PDS) needs attention too. The minister believes that the PDS needs to be modernized by the state governments. He hoped that the Agriculture Leadership Summit will be able to put some light on the important issues of the agriculture sector.

In his address, Prof MS Swminathan, father of India’s Green Revolution talked about the importance of public policies for farm growth. He said that in the area of policy formulation, for the first time the government has initiated the ‘National Policy for Farmers’. Prof Swaminathan said that the farmer policies must focus on how to increase the net income of the farmers. He also suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture should be changed to Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. In his speech, he also highlighted the serious concern of ‘Crop Holiday’ in Andhra Pradesh. He said that the ‘Crop Holiday’ should be a wakeup call for farm policies. Prof Swaminathan said that today there is an urgent need to enhance the non farm employment in the rural areas. One of the key points raised in his address was the lack of synergy between various policies for the farm sector. He said, “There is no lack of schemes and programmes in India, but what is lacking is the synergy among these schemes and programmes.”

Former Union Minister, Prof YK Alagh in his speech raised the burning issue of food inflation. The major point of his speech was the question raised by all of us today. “Will the food inflation come under control?” asked Prof Alagh. He said, it is time that necessary steps are taken to bring the rising inflation under control. He said that without a proper framework, just formulating macro policies will not help the farmers. Prof Alagh said that there is miscalculation in most of the policies because of the lack of proper information. “India has grossly underestimated its urbanization by 40 million people,” said Alagh. According to the former minister, improved technologies, better infrastructure, proper incentives are some the important areas that need immediate attention to improve the agriculture sector in India.

Dr RK Kusumariya, Agriculture Minister of the state of Madhya Pradesh shared the plight of Indian farmers in his speech. “The existence of our farmers is in question today,” said Dr Kusumariya. He highlighted the fact that how in our country farmers are getting poorer and poorer. Dr Kusumariya spoke about various areas of the agriculture that need focus. He said that the group of small and marginal farmers needs special policies for their upliftment. Other areas which he said need more focus are livestock management and organic farming. “With the help of activities like organic farming and carbon sequestration, we can definitely achieve food security,” the minister said.

Sh BK Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development highlighted the importance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the upliftment of the farmers. He believes that the programme has had a salutary effect on the rural people. Mr Sinha believes that from the agriculture point of view, there exists a tremendous potential in MGNREGA. “If we do improvement in 70 per cent of our land using MGNREGA, second Green Revolution can definitely be brought,” said Mr Sinha. He said that there is a need of more medium and micro policies for our farmers rather than macro policies. He added that policy integration at the grass root level is the key to success in the agriculture sector. 

Political Leaders Session

The Political Leaders Session was held under the chairmanship of former Minister of State for Agriculture, Sh Sompal which included Sh Sham Lal Sharma, Horticulture Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and former minister Oscar Fernandes.

The session started with the address of Sh Sham Lal Sharma who spoke about the tremendous potential of agriculture and horticulture sector in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He also talked about the various achievements of the state in the horticulture sector. Sh Sharma highlighted the various programmes and schemes initiated by the state to promote horticulture in the state. He said that the state of J&K is fully committed in developing the agriculture sector in the state.  Sh Sharma concluded his speech by expressing his happiness for winning ‘State Horticulture Leadership Award 2011’

In his speech, former Union Minister, Oscar Fernandes spoke about the various aspects of agriculture sector like the crisis of labour shortage in the rural areas. “How to make up the loss of labour in the agriculture sector is a key issue to be addressed,” said Mr Fernandes. He said that the focus should be on each and every farmer family and steps must be taken to find out ways for supplementary income for them. In his address, Sh Fernandes also talked about the problems faced by the sugarcane farmers in the country.

Sh Sompal congratulated the Agriculture Today for organizing the summit. He said that Indian agriculture needs a complete re look. “More investment and more budgetary allocations are required for the agriculture sector,” said Sh Sompal. He brought out the issue of wasteland management in his address. He said that policies are required to harness wasteland in the country. Sh Sompal also said that the agriculture sector needs more research and study. He believes that the Indian biodiversity is unmatched on earth but not enough has been done to harness this rich diversity. He also said that livestock management needs more focus too. “The Agriculture and Livestock potential has been grossly underestimated.” said Mr Sompal.

Industry Leaders Session

The Industry Leaders Session was held under the chairmanship of Salil Singhal, MD, PI Industries Limited which included prominent industry leaders Dr S Bhattachrjee, MD, NERAMAC; Mr Kapil Mehan, MD, Coromandal International Limited; Mr Raul Rebello, Vice President- Strategy Initiatives, Axis Bank; and Dr AK Rajput, ED, All India Poultry Breeders Association.

In his speech, Dr S Bhattacharjee spoke about the problems and issues of agri business in the North East Region of the country. He said that the main challenges of agri business in the region are: poverty, small land holdings, natural calamities, and weak institutional credit system among others. He said that it is important that the exotic products of North East especially horticultural produces like Kiwi needs promotion and attention. Dr Bhattacharjee said that the horticulture sector in the North East has a tremendous potential. He hoped that the summit will help in taking forward the cause of farmers of the North East.

Mr Kapil Mehan in his address highlighted the issue of crop nutrition and soil health. He said that while formulating policies, the view point of the industries is often unheard. Mr Mehan believes that sectors like fertilizer needs policy reforms. He said that the soils are becoming deficient in micro nutrients and immediate actions are required to check this problem. “India has mastered the art of correcting policies only when there is a crisis,” said Mr Mehan. He said that there is a gap between the formulation and implementation of policies. Mr Mehan believes that there is an urgent need of a debate to find out whether agriculture should be a Central, State or Concurrent subject. He said that the time has come to move away from too many notifications and approvals. He believes that the focus should shift from productivity to farmers’ income and well being. “We should provide to farmers India as a market and not just his locality or the district,” said Mr Mehan.

The Vice President, Strategy Initiatives of Axis Bank, Mr Raul Rebello in his speech spoke about the flow of rural credit to farmers. He pointed out that from 2002 to 2010, the flow of agri credit has almost increased seven times. He said that the banks tend to look at agriculture as a mandatory business rather than a willing one. Mr Rebello said that steps must be taken to change such an attitude. He added that policy reforms are required to increase the credit flow to agriculture. In his speech, Mr Rebello also talked about the various initiatives taken by the Axis bank in promoting the agriculture sector. He said that through its various innovative and pro farmer schemes and programmes, Axis Bank stands out in the field of agri lending.

Another speaker and eminent industry person, Dr AK Rajput in his speech spoke about poultry farming and said that farmers practicing poultry farming along with agriculture are better off. He said that contract farming can be a boon to the poultry industry as in such a practice farmers are free from market fluctuations. In his speech he talked about the model on contract farming followed by Sugna Group. Dr Rajput highlighted the various achievements and the phenomenal growth of the Group due to contract farming. He believes that contract farming can add to the income of Indian farmers.

Salil Singhal, in his address spoke about the importance of agro chemicals for agricultural productivity. “Agro chemical is a very critical activity required for agriculture,” said Mr Singhal. He said that the agro chemicals sector is caught between the environmentalists and agricultural need. Mr Singhal said that there is a need to remove the unnecessary fears among the farmers about agro chemicals. He also highlighted the lack of a clear National Pesticide Policy. He believes that today, the need of agro chemicals and technology has grown even more due to the lack of labour.

Policy and States session

The policy and state session was chaired by Sh Chandrashekar Sahu, Hon’ble Agriculure Minister, Chattisgarh, and included Mr. Sanjeev Chopra, IAS Joint Secretary Agriculture, GOI and Mr. JS Mishra, Commisioner KVIC.

Mr. Chandrashe-kar  Sahu talked about how to tackle age old issue of agriculture and the extent environmental changes impacting agriculture. He said we should encourage the role of women in Indian agriculture. There should be promotion of small Agri business and it will add in achieving food security. 

Mr Sanjeev Chopra emphasized that the fact is after the success of green revolution the agriculture development is declining and allocation of state Govt. to something called Agriculture came down. Agriculture is the major contributor in increasing the country’s GDP. There should also be policy reformation as earlier we use to design policy  which help us in enhancement of surplus, export and we have to redesign Agriculture insurance and Kisan credit card. Important thing to note is that its not technology which is at fault but the ownership of technology which should be more of interest to farmers/ stakeholders.

Mr JS Mishra said that farmers should be in good situation for quality of life to be sustained. A lot of activities need to be supplemented for agriculture.

Experts Session  

The Experts session was chaired by Dr PL Gautam, Chairman, protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority. It included Dr Swapan K Dutta, DDG CS, ICAR and Mr. SK Nanda, Secretary of Environment and Forest, Government of Gujarat.

In his address, Dr Swapan Dutta talked primarily about science and technology in relation to agriculture. He said that market intelligence and new technologies like Biotechnology are keys towards developing the agriculture sector. In this regard, Dr Dutta gave the example of countries like Brazil which has made tremendous growth in the agriculture due to the use of science and technology. “Science and organization are the two main inputs needed for agriculture,” said Dr Dutta. He also said that the biggest challenge of Indian agriculture is policy implementation. Dr Dutta believes that there is no lack of policies in India, what lacks is the proper implementation of the policies.

Mr. SK Nanda, Secretary of Environment and Forest, Government of Gujarat in his speech focused on the need based pragmatic reform in Indian agriculture. He said that one of the areas that need focus for the farm growth is information and communication. “Like IT, we need to change agriculture into a user friendly one,” said Mr Nanda. He believes that, there is a need of mobile connectivity between the agricultural universities and the farmers. He also highlighted the need of rural infrastructure to mitigate the migration of people from rural to urban areas. He talked about the concept of RURBAN model in developing the agriculture sector. As defined by Mr Nanda, RURBAN is a mix of Rural and Urban development. He also talked about the necessity of ‘Lab to Land Programmes’ to improve the agriculture sector. Another key area of his speech was the need of Minimum Support Price to farmers. “If a farmer rediscovers the price he invests, he gets encouragement to invest more in agriculture,” said Mr Nanda.

In his speech, the chairman of the Experts Session, Dr Gautam spoke about the importance of information and technology dissemination to the farmers. “Experience of farmers and knowledge of scientists together can lead to success,” said Dr Gautam. Like most other speakers he also said that the implementation of policies in the field of agriculture is the key issue to be addressed. He also highlighted the importance of biodiversity conservation in his speech. He said that summits like the Agriculture Leadership Summit should focus on finding out possible ways to develop Indian Agriculture.

The international and the Civil Society Session

The International and the Civil Society Session was held under the chairmanship of former Rajya Sabha MP Dr Sharad Joshi. The session included eminent persons like: Mr Yahel Vilan, Deputy Chief of Mission, Israel; Dr Rita Sharma, member secretary, NAC; DR Kaarthikeyan, former CBI director; Dr V Ranga Rao, CEO of Annadata, ETV; and Dr Madhu Purnima Kishwar from Centre for Study of Developing Societies.

In his speech, Mr Yahel Vilan talked about the excellent bilateral cooperation of India and Israel in the field of agriculture. “The key sector of our bilateral cooperation is Agriculture,” said the Deputy Chief of Mission, Israel. He praised India for the various agriculture related growth. He also talked about the various similarities between the two countries including the similarities in the agriculture sector. According to Mr Vilan, proper implementation of policies is of utmost importance in promoting the agriculture sector.

Dr Rita Sharma spoke about the need for mobilizing a second green revolution. She spoke about various aspects that can help bringing a second green revolution in the country. She defined the first green revolution as a cornucopia and also a Pandora’s Box. She said that first green revolution led to increased agricultural productivity but it also caused a great deal of environmental problems like depletion of the water table. In her speech, Dr Sharma pointed out the need of special policies for the small and marginal farmers who were not taken into consideration in the first green revolution. “There is a need of sustainable intensification of agriculture rather than intensification of agriculture to start a second green revolution in the country,” said Dr Sharma. She talked about the need of policies based on the idea of ‘Save and Grow’ that is intensification along with conservation.

Former CBI Director DR Kaarthikeyan talked in details about the agrarian crisis in his speech. Quoting P Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, around 2, 70000 farmers have committed suicides in the last decade. He pointed out the burning issue of ‘Crop Holiday’ in the state of Andhra Pradesh. “Human Dimension should be the focus while initiating agricultural policies,” he said. Mr Kaarthikeyan said that lesser and lesser investments have been made in the sector of agriculture. He also talked about the importance of livestock sector in livelihood generation. Mr Kaarthikeyan believes that special schemes and policies are needed for the small and landless farmers. He said that agriculture needs to be turned into a more attractive occupation so that more and more youth can be attracted towards this area.

Dr V Ranga Rao, another speaker on behalf of the Civil Society Session talked about the role of media in the farm growth. Dr Rao said that the media must positively influence the policy makers for farm growth.  He said that the farm sector is undergoing worst crisis today. “Because of unsustainable and unrewarding agriculture, there has been a ‘crop holiday’ in AP,” said Dr Rao. He believes that there is a need of second green revolution in the country and information and technology dissemination is must for it.  He also talked about the various steps and programmes initiated by Annadata, ETV for the benefit of farmers. “Annadata telecasts various agriculture related programmes and encourages the farmers to help themselves,” said Dr Rao. Like many other speakers, Dr Rao also said that the biggest challenge of Indian agriculture is the lack of implementation of the farm policies. 

In her fiery speech, Dr Madhu Purnima Kishwar spoke about the miserable condition of the Indian farmers. She expressed her disappointment over government’s failure in improving the condition of the Indian farmers. She said that the status of agriculture has changed from the best to worst. She said that it is not a time to have false optimism about the agriculture sector but a time to honestly revise our farm policies.  “This is not a time to congratulate ourselves but a time to seriously revise our agricultural policies,” said Dr Kishwar.  She also expressed her disappointment over media for its lack of responsibility towards the agriculture sector. Dr Kishwar said that surveys show that the time and space allocated to agriculture by both print and electronic media is negligible. She ended her speech by saying, “Our farmers and vendors are not scared of the Wallmart but they are scared of the police.”

The session was concluded with a brief speech by the chairperson, Dr Sharad Joshi. He said that the anti farmer policies are the biggest obstacle today. He said that opposition to new technologies by many NGOs can be a great obstacle to farm growth. Dr Joshi thanked the Agriculture Today team for organizing the summit and keeping a civil society session on policy reforms for farm growth.

Support of the Main Sponsors Ministry of Rural Development (MORD)and Monsanto Imagine, Sponsors Government of Himachal Pradesh, Jain Irrigation Systems, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, International Agricultural Consulting Group (IACG)and Food Corporation of India (FCI) and, Co-Sponsors namely Dupont, Bayer,PI Industries, Jubilant Industries,Ministry of Earth Science, Coromandel, Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), Central Warehousing Corporation( CWC), Axis Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Committee for Plasticulture Application in Horticulture (NCPAH) and Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) were acknowledged in the vote of thanks.

Key Recommendations of the Leadership Summit 2011

Keeping in mind the demands of the agriculture sector, a day long Agriculture Summit was held by the Agriculture Today. From scientists to policy makers to farmers, the summit was attended by the most eminent persons of Indian Agriculture. After a detailed and in depth discussion, a number of recommendations have been put forward by the summit so as to achieve farm as well as farmers’ growth in the country…

• Given the plethora of schemes and programmes for agriculture development already in place, the need is their effective monitoring and implementation. The problem is not lack of policies but lack of proper implementation and synergy among the policies. There must me be more effective coordination between the state and the central government and mandatory engagement of professional agencies in monitoring and appraisal of schemes.
• Agriculture sector needs holistic approach. There is a need of policy integration at the grass root level. The policies should aim at welfare of the farmers by increase in the income rather than the mere increase in the production and productivity. There is need is to reintegrate crop based agriculture and animal husbandry practices to best harness the potential of the live stock sector. Special attention is required to promote and develop the live stock sector in India, which can add much value to the farm economy.
• Agriculture supports 70 per cent of our population for livelihood security. But due to neglect, it is unable to harness its true potential. India has all the ingredients for an agro industrial revolution- man, money and material but due to the absence of entrepreneurship, there is hardly any value added activity at the farm level and 98 per cent of our farm produce is sold in the raw form. It is therefore recommended that a large scale training and entrepreneurship development programmes be launched annually in the farm sector.
• v   For farmers to realize better prices for their produce, markets need to pen up to multiple agencies to engage and compete. Therefore the procurements need to be opened up and movement of food grains to be freed. Agriculture marketing reforms should therefore be carried by States and model mandi laws to be formulated to help farmers find better markets and better prices.
• The government policies often fail to focus on the small and marginal farmers. The technologies often fail to reach and help them. Greater intensification and diversification achieved on smaller farms suggest that these predominant holdings play prominent and increasingly more important role in productivity and livelihood security. Special policies must be formulated and implemented to help the small and marginal farmers achieve higher productivity, stability and sustainability of agricultural production.
• Increasing agricultural productivity is a key challenge for ensuring national food security. To increase production, exploiting the potential of existing yield gaps offers tremendous opportunity. Hence, a Mission Mode Program on “Bridging the Productivity Gap” with real missionary zeal and effective monitoring is required to be launched with meticulous planning as a matter of priority.  For this, existing technology dissemination system needs to be revitalized and tuned to meet the emerging needs of farmers. 
• v   Post WTO India is faced with the global competition and at the same time the global market opportunities. It is pertinent to enhance its productivity and importantly farming efficiency to reduce per unit cost so as to enhance its global competitiveness. Farm mechanization holds critical importance in enhancing farming efficiency. It has assumed crucial significance especially after the launch of NREGA, where labour shortage is affecting agriculture. It is therefore recommended that a national policy on farm mechanization to be launched, especially aimed at popularizing small farm machinery by subsidizing the costs and creating village panchayat level machinery custom hiring centres.
• Linking farms with markets and adding value at each stage will help in employment generation, entrepreneurship development, increased profits to farmers and safe and healthy food to consumers. Investments in food processing sector have multiplying benefits for all, and hence a major boost by policy and resources allocation need to be given to the processing sector. Incentives through appropriate tax structure should be such that agro-processing, especially in the rural areas, becomes a lucrative option both for the farmers and the private sector. 
• There is an urgent need for attention to fertiliser usage, as availability of certain crucial nutrients is going to be a question mark in the years to come. As per the data available, about 30% fertilizers are wasted due to poor application. There is thus need for a long term policy focussed on improving fertiliser use efficiency in a mission mode. We therefore propose for the launch of the National Soil Health Mission, under which judicious use of fertilisers through advanced application technologies to be promoted by making the entire cultivable land’s nutrient profiling.
• Structural reforms in agriculture pertaining to land leasing and market restrictions need to be addressed. The market regulation on movement and procurements by private players is hampering market growth and prices realization by farmers. Similarly, due to land leasing policies of State Governments the concept of contract farming is not successful. The experiments of contract farming are based on “win all”, bringing value to all partners in operations. This needs to be encouraged on a large scale, especially when industry is gearing up to involve in agriculture on a large scale.
• A nation wide scientific survey and based on that competitive indexing of crops and animal resources needs to be done,  against national and global benchmarks on cost, quality and productivity parameters, and their short, medium and long term strategic advantages. Based on this national competitive indexing and estimation of market demands in short, medium and log terms national farm resource utilisation planning needs to be done, using a mix of incentives and dis-incentives. If India has to succeed in global market on a long term basis, this task is unavoidable.