The 12th Plan Aims at Ensuring Food Security and Improving the Lot of Farmers

Sharad Paar
Agriculture !inister"s Address at the #$th !eeting of the %ational &evelopment
'ouncil
A number of new initiatives have been proposed in the 12th Five Year Plan for retaining
youth in Agriculture Sector and funding for research and innovations in the sector. The
twin obectives of the plan are ensuring food security and improving the lot of farmers
through higher investments in agriculture and allied sectors. To address the challenges
in live stoc! sector" %ational Livestoc( !ission and %ational Programme for )ovine
)reeding * &airying has also been proposed in the Plan. This was stated by Shri
Sharad Pawar" #nion $inister for Agriculture and Food Processing %ndustries in the &'th
$eeting of the (ational )evelopment *ouncil here today.
Agriculture $inister said that 12th Plan will be focusing on strategies for stable and
remunerative prices to farmers+ greater role for the private sector in agriculture"
diversification and ,-) efforts+ distribution of more institutional credit e.uitably+
providing greater focus on small and marginal farmers" improving productivity in rainfed
areas+ and creating a more competitive environment for agricultural mar!eting.
Full te+t of the Agriculture !inister"s address is as follos,
%ndia/s growth story during the last decade is a matter of pride for all of us and % ta!e this
opportunity to congratulate and than! all the persons who made this happen especially
our Prime $inister who is mainly responsible for laying the foundation for the reforms
process in %ndia. This groth has naturally led to decreasing share of agricultural
sector"s contri-ution to the .&P/ hich no stands at around 1012
0owever" agriculture sector remains vital and critical because nearly #31 of the
population still depends on agriculture for their livelihood2 Thus" growth of the
agriculture sector is imperative for not only ensuring food security of the nation but more
importantly to achieve inclusive growth.
%n this endeavor" both *entral and State 1overnments have played their respective
proactive roles" such as mobili2ing resources" creating infrastructure" facilitating easy
availability of inputs" encouraging research and technology" providing institutional
support services and putting in place contingency measures to safeguard livelihoods
from natural calamities. 3ur farmers responded splendidly and not only ensured the
country/s self sufficiency in food but also achieved a record food grain production of
2#$200 million tons in 24115122
The average annual growth rate achieved in the agriculture and allied sector during
11th Plan improved to 6261 as against 22#1 and 2201 in the %inth and Tenth Plan
periods" respectively. %t is heartening that this was achieved in spite of a drought year in
2445614 and drought li!e conditions in some parts of the country during 2414611. This
momentum needs to be sustained in the 12th Plan to achieve an average annual
groth rate of 01 as envisaged in the 12th Plan &ocument2
The oilseed sector continues to be an area of concern where our dependence on
imports is rising. )rought proofing of the agriculture sector still remains elusive. $ore
than &&7 of the cropped area is rainfed and thus production in these areas is dependent
on the vagaries of nature. Therefore" issues of improving water use efficiency" micro
irrigation and coordinated efforts of various agencies of 1overnment towards rainfed
agriculture have to be addressed in the coming years.
,ural livelihood in our country is mainly dependent on farming. Therefore" inclusive
growth can only be ensured if we improve the economic viability of farming and ensure a
minimum net income for our farmers. Though the declining trend of farmers/ suicides is a
matter of some satisfaction" we cannot remain complacent. 8e have to redouble our
efforts to address the problem of agrarian distress in certain parts of the country.
States are ma7or sta(eholders in the development of our agriculture.
8e need to ma!e all efforts to reali2e the 12th Plan/s broad vision of 9Faster"
Sustainable" and $ore %nclusive 1rowth/" leading to broad6based improvement in the
economic and social conditions of our people and achieve inclusiveness by both
delivering benefits directly to the poor and the e:cluded groups and increasing their
ability to access employment and income opportunities.
The higher 1)P growth of ;.27 envisages <7 growth in agriculture and allied sector
and calls for continuing 11th Plan/s initiatives with added vigour. 8hile addressing the
issue of food security" we must also ta!e care of the nutritional needs of the population.
This re.uires greater attention to improving the productivity of oilseeds and pulses and
development of Animal 0usbandry and Fisheries sub6sectors. *rop diversification has to
be encouraged in e:tant green revolution belts where the yields have reached a plateau
and soil degradation and depleting ground water have become problems.
Simultaneously" efforts already underway for bridging yield gaps in low productivity but
high potential areas of the eastern region and rainfed areas will have to be escalated. To
overcome technology fatigue" the need of the hour is to give impetus to research efforts
in agriculture and intensify e:tension activities. Therefore" during the 12th Five Year
Plan" we will be ta!ing a number of new initiatives such as *onsortia research Platforms"
Farmer F%,ST" Student ,=A)Y" Attracting and ,etaining Youth in Agriculture" (ational
Agricultural =ducation Proect" =:tramural funding for research" *reation of funds for
Agri6%nnovations and Agri6%ncubation and setting up of an Agriculture Technology
Forecast *entre >ATF*?" =6courses" $oderni2ation of A# farms" etc.
States need to integrate efforts under various schemes in the agriculture sector and
programmes of other departments such as ,ural %nfrastructure )evelopment Fund
>,%)F?" @ac!ward ,egions 1rant Fund >@,1F?" Accelerated %rrigation @enefits
Programme >A%@P?" $ahatma 1andhi (ational ,ural =mployment 1uarantee Scheme
>$1(,=1S?" minor irrigation proects and other rural development wor!s and prepare
State Plans on agriculture depending on agro6climatic and natural resource
endowments.
This would need to be bac!ed up with effective agricultural e:tension" providing
assistance to farmers on both crop related activities and animal resources development.
% would urge all the states to ensure that all vacant posts as well as posts that created
after modification of guidelines of 9Support to State =:tension Programmes for =:tension
,eforms/ scheme >popularly !nown as AT$A scheme? are filled up on priority basis.
=:tension must go hand in hand with e:pansion of soil testing capacity and facility to test
input .uality. The private public partnership >PPP? model should be e:plored on a larger
and wider scale. Finally" the produce has to reach the mar!et and hence mar!et
development attains paramount importance. An enabling legal framewor!" by
amendment of the AP$* Acts" would need to be put in place" to encourage setting up of
private mar!ets" contract farming and so on. )oubts on AP$*s becoming redundant on
entry of F)% in retail are misplaced. 3n the contrary" role of AP$* will increase from a
regulatory focus to promotion of grading" branding" pac!aging and development of
mar!ets for local produce.
The maor challenges before us in livestoc! sector are well !nown" namely genetic
improvement in bovines" effective control of animal diseases" shortage of feed and
fodder" breed improvement" inade.uate infrastructure and inade.uate dissemination of
technology" s!ills and .uality services to farmers.
To address these challenges" we are launching (ational Aivestoc! $ission during the
12th Plan with the main obective of achieving sustainable development and growth of
livestoc! sector by providing greater fle:ibility to the states. Another initiative will be the
(ational Programme for @ovine @reeding - )airying by merging B e:isting maor
programmes. All the programmes in the inland and marine fisheries e:cluding the
scheme relating to welfare of fishers will be transferred to (ational Fisheries
)evelopment @oard to facilitate e:pansion of fisheries through integration of a wide
array of activities.
Summing up" our strategy for Agriculture for 12th Plan would inter6alia comprise assuring
stable and remunerative prices to farmers+ facilitating a greater role for the private sector
in agriculture+ ensuring supply of .uality seeds and planting materials at reasonable
prices+ ma!ing other inputs available on a timely basis+ pushing diversification and ,-)
efforts+ distribution of more institutional credit e.uitably+ providing greater focus on small
and marginal farmers through promotion of farmer interest groups" commodity interest
groups" farmers producer companies" self6help groups+ ma!ing concerted efforts to
improve productivity in rainfed areas in general and central and easternCnorth6eastern
regions of the country in particular+ and creating a more competitive environment for
agricultural mar!eting.