70
years of Independence
Special
Feature – I-Day 2017
Self
reliance in food – Green and White revolution
With
special reference to North East India
*Dr.
Prarthana Rajkumari
This
is an era of ‘Partivartan’ – time for some revolutionary changes! Our Prime
Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has started campaigning for a multicolour revolution
referring to a second green revolution with protein-rich pulses, a white
revolution with cattle and livestock, a saffron ‘energy’ revolution with solar
energy, and a blue revolution on clean water and the welfare of the fishermen.
Among these, Green and White Revolution have already influenced the live of the
Indian to a great extent. As far as food security is concerned, India cannot
compromise on food self-sufficiency and there has to be a number of short-term
as well as long-term initiatives to be taken. Shri Modi’s attention to the
sufferings of farmers during election campaign has raised a lot of hope among
the under-privileged community.
Green
Revolution was aimed to increase the production of food-grains that resulted in
a drastic reduction in imports. Because of this Green Revolution we are now self-sufficient
in food-grains and have sufficient stock in the central pool and sometimes in a
position to export food-grains also. Green Revolution brought a large scale
farm mechanisation which created demand for different types of machines and
requisite for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, weedicides, etc.
also increased considerable. Subsequently, an agro based industry has come up
creating a large number of employments in the country.
It
seems that North Eat, though rich in natural resources, has lagged behind since
Independence. Prime Minister said that the second Green Revolution should start
from the East and if that happens, it will begin from Assam. Accordingly, the
Ministry of Agriculture has included Assam in the list of eastern states to be
covered by the second Green Revolution. Among the eastern states, Assam has
received the best performance award for National Food Security Mission (NFSM) –
rice in 13 NFSM districts. The mission aims to increase the production and
productivity of rice.
With
so much water, fertile land and hardworking farmers North
East has the potential to contribute immensely in achieving the target of
doubling the farmers’ income by the year 2022. As the Prime Minister laid the
foundation stone of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Gogamukh,
Assam, it can be expected that it will impact the entire region in a positive
way and agriculture needs will be developed in line with the requirements of
the 21st century. Farmers will get benefitted from the changing
technology as well.
The
North East can excel in the field of organic farming as well. Diverse
agro-climatic conditions, varied soil types and abundant rainfall have endowed
the region with promising horticulture and value added products that can be
marketed within the country and abroad. The diverse agro-climatic situations in
the region offer excellent scope for growing different horticultural crop
groups like fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants. A wide
range of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate fruits such as lemon, mandarin,
pineapple, passion fruit, banana, ginger, turmeric, and vegetables, both
indigenous and exotic, are grown in the region. In terms of its contribution to
the national production, the region accounts for about 5.1% (fruits) and 4.5%
for vegetables.
Moreover,
a unique advantage the region has that it is gifted with suitable agro climatic
condition very different from rest of country due to its climatic diversity,
meandering altitudes and production of varied crop groups. In fact, the
uniqueness of North Eastern market is that one can enjoy fresh off-season crop
groups in one state from the neighbouring states where its season has just
started due to this climatic diversity.
White
Revolution is the concerted efforts on a cooperative level to increase milk supply
through which Indian Dairy Industry has grown to the extent that milk output
has not only toped the world, but also represents sustained growth in the
availability of milk and milk products. The dairy sector is now the largest
contributor in the agricultural sector to the nation’s GDP.
National
Dairy Development Board (NDDB) formed in 1965 to promote, plan and organise
dairy development through cooperatives launched Operation Flood in 1970 which
is considered to be the world’s largest dairy development programme. Under this
programme professionals were employed for marketing and application, and
science and technology to link the rural producers with urban consumers.
But
if we talk about North East India, consumption of milk and milk products is
much lower due to divergent food habit and less availability of milk. Assam is
the largest producer of milk followed by Tripura. In recent times a notable
increase in milk production is seen in Tripura mainly due to improvement in
milk breed. Prompt financial assistance from government and constructive
motivation in form of training engrossed the state to become successful in this
field.
The
country’s market leader, Amul, has started operations in the state giving a
tough competition to the West Assam Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Limited
(Wamul) that sells its products under the brand name Purabi, which has become a
household name and has met with some success in recent years. According to
Economic Survey of Assam, the Dairy Development Department has been focussing
on increasing milk production as well as creating processing facilities for
economic uplift of rural dairy farmers.
To
make the country self-reliant in agriculture and food security, instead of
providing a particular amount of food grains every month, the focus should be
on making the villages take care of their own needs which may help in removing
hunger in the long term. Strategic planning and implementation is necessary to
develop agriculture and make region marginally, if not significantly, surplus
in food production by integrating research, extension and education duly
supported by a time bound reforms in land tenure system in each state.
*******
*Author
is Assistant Professor in College of Agriculture, Dhuburi, Assam.
Views
expressed in the article are author’s personal.
(This
feature has been contributed by PIB Guwahati)