Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
I am happy to be here today to participate in the 25th anniversary celebrations of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). I would like to begin by saluting Dr. Swaminathan for having created this outstanding institution using funds from the First World Food Prize he received in 1987 as well as other international and national prizes. The MSSRF is a unique Research and Training Centre for imparting a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to technology development and dissemination.
This Foundation’s pro-nature work has led to the conservation of large areas of mangrove wetlands as well as agro-biodiversity. Its pro-poor work has shown how the bio-village model of sustainable rural development provides an opportunity for livelihood security for all, through an integrated approach to on-farm and non-farm employment and income. The Foundation’s pro-women approach to agricultural and rural development led to the introduction of the Mahila Kisan Shasakthikaran Pariyojana by the Government of India which I had the privilege of piloting in my capacity as Finance Minister. This Foundation is thus rendering outstanding service to our nation, both at the grassroots and public policy level.
On this special occasion, I congratulate all the Trustees, scientists and scholars of this Foundation on their past achievements and wish all of you continued success in your efforts to integrate livelihood and ecological security in a mutually reinforcing manner in rural and tribal India.
The year 2013 marks a significant milestone in our agricultural and social history. Last month the National Food Security Ordinance was promulgated and the Bill in this regard will be taken up by the Parliament in the session which commenced two days back. This initiative is believed to be the world’s largest social protection measure against hunger. Henceforth, availability of food at an affordable cost will be a legal right to over two third’s of our population. Every Indian can be proud of this transition from the days of the Bengal Famine of 1943 in which over 3 million people died to the implementation of the Right to Food with our own home grown food.
However, this Rights based approach to Food can be sustained only if we pay greater attention to farmers and farming. The National Commission on Farmers, chaired by Prof M S Swaminathan has given valuable recommendations for converting the Green revolution into an Ever-Green revolution, resulting in higher productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm. Land is a shrinking resource for agriculture. We have hence no option except to produce more from less land as well as less irrigation water. This is where the farmer participatory research programme as well as the farmer to farmer learning institutions like Farm Schools promoted by this Foundation are extremely valuable.
Eastern India has large untapped production potential. The future of our food security system will depend upon the progress we make in assisting farm families in this region produce more in an environmentally sustainable manner. When I was the Finance Minister, I had delineated in the Union Budget for 2010-11 a strategy to extend the Green Revolution to the eastern region of the country. As a result of this initiative, farmers in the selected clusters have adopted good agricultural practices and benefitted from the yield advantage of hybrid rice technology. It is important that the Green Revolution in eastern India is provided impetus through synergetic packages of technology, services and public policy.
Climate change, leading to adverse changes in precipitation, temperature and sea level is a major threat to our food security system. Drought, floods and extreme weather events are likely to become even more frequent. We have just witnessed the havoc caused by the floods in Uttarakhand. We should strengthen the coping capacity of rural and tribal families in the area of climate risk management. I am happy this Foundation is developing a cadre of Community Climate Risk Managers, with the ultimate goal of training at least one woman and one male member of every Panchayat in the science and art of climate risk management. There is great scope for marrying traditional knowledge and wisdom with modern science in this area. Our earlier systems of agriculture focused more on risk avoidance than yield enhancement. Now, we need to combine both.
Another area of concern is the prevalence of widespread malnutrition in our country. This has serious long term consequences since malnourished babies suffer from several handicaps including reduced cognitive and learning capacity. Under-nutrition or calorie deprivation arising from inadequate purchasing power must be eliminated and this is exactly what the National Food Security initiative seeks to achieve. Protein hunger caused by the deficiency of protein rich foods like pulses in the diet must be brought to an end. It is with this objective that as Finance Minister I proposed in the budget of 2011-12, the organization of 60,000 Pulses Villages which will strive to end the demand-supply gap in the area of pulses. I am happy to note that we have achieved record production of 18.45 million tonne of pulses in 2012-13. This augurs well for our march towards self-sufficiency in pulses. Thirdly, there is hidden hunger caused by micro-nutrient deficiencies, such as iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A, Vitamin B 12 etc. Financial provision for a new initiative for organizing nutri-farms where agricultural remedies can be applied to overcome nutritional maladies has been included in the 2013-14 budget by Finance Minister Shri P Chidambaram. Credit for this idea also goes to Prof Swaminathan.
Non-food factors like clean drinking water, sanitation and toilets, environmental hygiene and primary health care need equal attention, if we are to ensure nutrition security for our people. The first duty of any independent nation is to provide opportunities to every citizen for a healthy and productive life. The great Tamil poet Subramania Bharati mentioned in a song that nutrition for the body and education for the mind are the two basic needs for a satisfying life. To ensure adequate food production, we should harness the best in frontier technologies and blend them with the ecological prudence of rural and tribal men and women.
I am happy that on this occasion, we are honouring the farmers of the Kuttanad region of Kerala who started developing techniques for below sea level farming nearly two centuries ago. This unique system of rice-fish cultivation developed by farm families against great odds has been declared by FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). I am glad the Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Oommen Chandy has come all the way to receive the Plaque on behalf of the farm families of Kuttanad. I am also happy that the Assistant Director General of FAO is with us today for the specific purpose of handing over this Plaque. It will be appropriate to recall that the first GIAHS site to be recognized in our country is the tribal farming system of Koraput in Odisha. Kuttanad farmers are the second to receive such a global recognition.
I congratulate the tribal and farm families of both Koraput and Kuttanad on the international recognition they have received for these innovative methods of farming under adverse conditions. The agronomic practices developed by Kuttanad farmers will be of tremendous value in coping with the challenges arising from global warming induced sea level rise. I compliment the scientists of MSSRF for preparing the documentation which led to the recognition of the Koraput and Kuttanad farming systems as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.
I am happy that so far the South-West monsoon has been active. The monsoon and the market are the two major determinants of farmers’ well being. We need more scientific work in managing both monsoon behaviour and market volatility. The challenges are many, but as I mentioned earlier, we have the capacity to overcome them as demonstrated by our moving away from a ship to mouth existence of the nineteen sixties to the Right to Food commitment of 2013. This is the message which the Green Revolution of the 1960s gave us. Quoting George Lindsay Johnstone, an official of the East India Company, John Dreze and Amartya Sen in their recent book titled, “An Uncertain Glory : India and its contradictions”, point out that “Failure to reflect upon their own strength” was an important cause for India’s submission to colonial rule. We must ensure that there is full appreciation of our own strengths and for this we must learn from history. We would not have proved the prophets of doom wrong in the nineteen sixties, if political leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and C Subramaniam had not realized our strengths in the areas of science and farming. Their indomitable spirit helped scientists and farmers to convert the nation from a begging bowl into a “bread basket”.
The work done over the last 25 years by the scientists and scholars of this institution bears testimony to the vast untapped potential we have in our youth. One of our first priorities in reaping the demographic dividend must be in the field of food. I hope the scientists of this and other institutions in our country will continue to play their part in achieving the dream of our founding father Mahatma Gandhi, who emphasized in Noakhali in 1946 that freedom from hunger should be the foremost priority of independent India. I wish you all success in this task. The nation counts on you and awaits your further contributions.
Jai Hind.
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(Release ID :97877)