The Hindu : Kalam calls for second green revolution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 09, 2003

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Kalam calls for second green revolution

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 8. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today called for a second green revolution to feed the growing population.

"At a time when land under cultivation is shrinking and the population increasing, doubling the productivity is the only way to feed the millions in the country," he said.

Inaugurating the second International Congress on Plant Physiology here, Dr. Kalam underscored the need for an integrated mission mode approach from soil to marketing to achieve a target of 300 million tonne grain output by 2020. By then India's arable land is projected to fall to about 100 million hectares from the present 170 million hectares.

"The second green revolution should envisage integrated programmes taking care of all aspects of agriculture from soil characteristics, matching seeds, grains, conversion to food and its marketing after value addition," Dr. Kalam said.

The Union Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, pointed out that after enjoying self-sufficiency in food during the last three decades, many Asian countries were once again at the crossroads. They faced new challenges because of population growth, environmental degradation and stagnation in farm productivity in intensive farming areas and the trend towards globalisation.

Today, about 800 million people were hungry. Many more were undernourished. "In the 21st century, one of the greatest challenges, therefore, will be to ensure that food production is coupled with poverty alleviation and environmental preservation. That requires greater attention to small and marginal farmers.''

Referring to the drought situation in India this kharif, Mr. Singh said a decrease of more than 20 million tonnes of kharif production could create problems of livelihood security for the farming masses. To ensure a good deal for them, there was a need to develop a scientific "Agricultural Intelligence System" that would facilitate understanding of the impact of real time changes, in weather parameters and other inputs on production and prospects of different commodities much before harvests.

The Minister stressed the need to find alternative markets for farmers' crop products. The Government had recently taken a major decision to promote gasohol — a mix of five per cent ethanol with 95 per cent gasoline (petrol), in a few States. Gradually this would be implemented all over the country.

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