President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday emphasised on "out-of-the-box" solutions for enhancing productivity in rainfed and dryland farming (RFDF) areas that form majority of the agriculture land and called for greater thrust on these regions in the 12th Five-Year plan.
Dwelling on the importance of RFDF areas, she said 60 per cent of India's cultivated area come under RFDF which provides 44 per cent of food production in the country and includes 87 per cent of coarse cereals and pulses, 80 per cent oil seeds and 65 per cent cotton. These areas support about 40 per cent of the population, mostly belonging to the poorer sections of the society. Besides, it also helps nearly 60 per cent of the livestock population. The President expressed concern over "very low investment" in RFDF areas as compared to integrated areas and called for paying urgent attention towards it. "A willingness to look at out-of-the-box solutions is necessary to usher in noticeable change in handling the subject," she said at a workshop at the Rashtrapati Bhawan which was also attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The workshop is the part of the initiative of the President for enhancing farm productivity, especially in rainfed areas. It was attended by over 20 governors, eight union ministers, five chief ministers and 37 vice-chancellors of agricultural universities. "In the 12th Five-Year Plan, it is necessary to give a thrust to RFDF areas that will generate a sense of urgency at the government level to promote partnership between various stakeholders to revitalise Indian agriculture," she said. Pranab asks states to promote investment in farm supply chain In order to effectively deal with food inflation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday asked the states to encourage organised sector in supply management pending a decision on allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. "There are no policy impediments for the presence of organised retail in food and other items of daily consumption that have exhibited inflationary spikes in the past several months," FM said. "Even as we build a consensus on FDI in multi-brand retail, it is important for the State governments to encourage the presence of organised sector in strengthening the food supply chain. There is ample space for the organised sector to co-exist with the family retail shops," Mukherjee said in New Delhi. He was speaking at the workshop on agriculture, a path-breaking initiative by President Pratibha Patil. Besides Patil, the workshop was attended by over 20 governors, eight union ministers and five chief ministers. Mukherjee said that efforts are needed to make the farm the sector more competitive and sustainable to support the growing needs of a rapidly-expanding Indian economy. Food inflation remained a major problem for the Indian economy during most of 2010 and 2011 with the rate of price rise of kitchen staples remaining in double-digit for most of the period. According to a background paper for the workshop, "leveraging foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail could be one way of addressing the issues related to wide gap between farm gate and consumer prices." Mukherjee said that with the impending implementation of National Food Security Act, covering the priority and general households, the level of production and procurement of foodgrains will have to be increased. (SP-15/2) India set to harvest record 250mn tons foodgrains: PM Exceeding target, the country is set to harvest a record 250 million tonnes of foodgrains this year, as efforts to push farm growth seem to be paying off, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday. "Our farmers have done us proud again this year. ... but we still have a long way to go. ... we cannot afford to be complacent since demand of horticulture and animal products is increasing very rapidly and this will require some shift of area away from production of foodgrains. "Therefore productivity in foodgrains has to go up handsomely," he said at a workshop at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The workshop is the part of the initiative of President Pratibha Patil for enhancing farm productivity, especially in rainfed areas. A Committee of Governors constituted by the President has already met twice. Besides Patil, today's meeting was attended by over 20 governors, eight union ministers, five chief ministers and 37 vice chancellors of agricultural universities. The Prime Minister said foodgrains production will exceed the target by five million tonnes and cotton output at 34 million bales is a new record as per the latest estimates. However, there was only one per cent growth rate in food production in the country, against two per cent required to meet India's grain requirement by 2020-21, he said. The Prime Minister also pointed out distortions arising from pricing and subsidy regimes resulting into soil degradation. He expressed concern over volatility in prices of farm products. "There is a big gap between farm gate and retail prices that the consumers pay. There is also volatility with prices being low after harvest. We need to address all this by reforming agricultural marketing systems and investing in supply chains," he said. (RBY-15/02) | 
