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Need to cut dependency on agriculture: Swaminathan

MUMBAI: Alluding to the risks involved in agriculture and the lack of a safety net for the poor, agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan called for reducing the dependency on agriculture by half and creating employment in other sectors to push up income levels.

Mr. Swaminathan was speaking here on Sunday in the context of the 40th anniversary of the Green Revolution of 1968 and the paradigm shift effected.

The occasion was the release of the book ‘Hungry Nation to Agro Power’ by the former Agriculture Minister, Annasaheb Shinde. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was the chief guest.

“In the next 20 years, we should bring down the number of people dependent on agriculture from 60 per cent to 30 per cent. We need to develop the secondary and tertiary sectors and generate employment there to raise incomes,” Mr. Swaminathan said. He cited the example of China in this respect.

“Agriculture is not just a food producing machine, but the backbone of livelihoods,” he said. Given the dependence, it was necessary to protect farmers and the rural people. “We don’t have an insurance system to take care of the needs of the farmers,” he remarked.

To reap the benefits of economies of scale, he also suggested that small and medium farmers, home science and commerce graduates and agro scientists can group together to form small agricultural clinics and business consortiums. Recalling Mr. Shinde’s contribution to the Green Revolution, Mr. Swaminathan listed technology, technological infrastructure, capacity building, training and trade as the factors which catalysed agricultural growth in India.

Mr. Swaminathan chronicled the stages in the Green Revolution and India’s switch to being an agro power. The Bengal famine was in the backdrop of Indian independence. But today, the government of India has 60 million tonnes of wheat and rice, he said.

Along with the two crops, the Green Revolution also consisted of maize, jowar and bajra revolutions.

Mr. Pawar called for a holistic approach to the issue of agricultural production. Praising Mr. Shinde’s vision, he said that pisciculture, dairy production and agro marketing should also be developed alongside agriculture.

Thus, “White and Blue revolution [fish]” could give landless labourers and women opportunities for employment and empower them.

Mr. Pawar said that in the past year and a half India has had Rs.9,000 crore worth of fish production. India is first in milk production. However, falling prices of milk and milk powder worldwide are a worrisome factor, he said.

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