There is Need of Strong Services Sector in Rural India-Radha Mohan Singh
There is Need of Strong
Services Sector in Rural India-Radha Mohan Singh
There is of need
of a strong services sector in rural India. This should include Agri-business
centers and agri-clinics on a big scale. This was stated by Union Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare Minister, Sh. Radha Mohan Singh while addressing
International Grassland Congress here today. He said that the current focus is
on how to make agriculture more attractive and rewarding to the younger
generation. It is imperative for the nation to produce food not only to feed
its more than one billion human population but also for an equal number of
livestock, he added.
Full text of Union
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare speech:
Guests of today’s program Secretary, DARE and Director
General of ICAR Dr S. Ayyapan; former Director General of ICAR, Dr. R. S.
Paroda, Dr. Punjab Singh and Secretary, DAHDF Sh. Ashok Kumar Angurana; Guests
from abroad; Media brothers, Scientists, Students and Farmers; Ladies and
Gentleman.
On behalf of Indian government and its citizens, I
welcome all the participants and representatives who have arrived from
different parts of the world in this historic town to attend the 23rd IGC.
Right now the weather here is changing and I hope that it will remain pleasant
and good during your stay.
Globally, most livestock are found in India and at
present in our country, their number is approximately 512 million. India has
56.7 percent of world buffalo population, 12.5 percent of cows and 20.4 percent
small ruminant animals. Crop and animal husbandries are the two main components
of mixed farming system, which influence our agricultural economy and provide
sustenance. Rural economy of India has revolved around livestock and because of
urbanization there are changes in feeding habits of peoples and it moved more
towards milk, milk products and meat which resulted in increase in demand of
livestock products especially in peri-urban region. Fodder sources in India are
from crop residues, cultivated fodder, forages and forests, permanent pastures
and grazing lands. Currently India is facing a deficit of about 35.6 percent of
green fodder and approximately 10.9 per cent of dried fodder and besides this
today the milk production in India is highest in the world which is
approximately 138 million tons. Wool production is approximately 480 million kg
in India. As compare to dairy animals, sheep and goats have to rely on
pastures.
The dependence of domestic animals on pasture is very
high and constant development and ever increasing human population placed a
much higher pressure on natural grasslands and pastures and ultimately their
area is decreasing rapidly. Indian grassland has a vast diversity from
north-east (Assam) to west (Thar desert). The ecological setup
found in Thar area of Rajasthan has similarity with sahara
grasslands of Africa and that why sometime it is considered as Indian
sahahra desert. East to west Thar area of Rajasthan has
vast sahara desert vegetation and when we move to eastern part of Rajasthan it
has grasses which are more in high rainfall areas. A vast bio-diversity in
vegetation and grassland is observed in India from east to west which is very
unique in nature.
The status of grasslands is highly variable and the area
and productivity is decreasing because of increasing human pressure for
cultivation of food grains crops and increase in animal population which
results in overgrazing and ultimately shrinking the grasslands area. Areas of
Indian pastures have reduced from about 70 million ha in 1947 to just about 38 million
ha in 1997 and major proportion of this loss is from the village common lands.
In India several grasslands like Banni grasslands reserve, Kangayam grassland,Korangadu grassland,
Shola grassland, Cold desert of the Indian Trans-Himalayas grasslands, Terai
grasslands, Thar desert etc are situated in poor soil categories and their
productivity mainly depend on precipitation which ranges between 0.2 t/ha in 50
mm rain to 30 t/ha under 1850 mm rain in tropical ecosystem. Grassland
production is also related to use patterns, grazing intensity and soil factors. Carrying
capacity of Indian grasslands is about 0.20 to 1.47 adult cattle units
(ACU) / ha. The grazing intensity in the country is as high as 12.6 (ACU)/ ha
as against 0.8 ACU/ ha in developed countries.
Traditionally grasslands are mainly utilized by
pastoralist’s community. Rearing animal compositions are based on fodder
resources and their availability. In reality, pastoralism itself is an
adaptation to a harsh environment, and it is characterized by opportunism and
flexibility. Since independence of India, the pastoralists of Himalayas have
faced a series of significant changes from external political and economic
changes. Many of them left their traditional transhumant way of life and
settled along valleys. Some have settled in urban areas others stick to the
pastoral activities by changing the composition of livestock by increasing
number of goats and decreasing number of yaks. Similarly, in Rajasthan camel
population is declining due to non availability of grazing sources. State
policies regarding forests, agriculture, irrigation, fodder, famine, pastoral
rights and migration are some of the mechanisms that contribute to the
alteration of pastoral life-style. Besides larger grasslands common
property resources (CPRs) serves the needs of poor resource farmers. Between 84
to 100% of poor households gathered food, fuel, fodder and fibre items from the
CPRs. Fodder is the major item for which practically all rural poor depend on
CPRs. The landless farmers graze their animals as well as collect fodder from
the CPRs. Dependence of the poor section on CPRs for grazing is significant.
There is no data base on actual pasture resources of the
country. The area under pasture resources are intermingling reported with
forest area, CPRs, wasteland, non- cultivated land. Indeed issues on augmenting
forage resources were dealt over the last plan (11nth plan) by the departments
of Animal Husbandry, Agriculture and Forests focusing to promote stall feeding
mainly based on cultivated fodder. This scheme focused largely on promoting
fodder cultivation and post-harvest handling of fodder and does not have any
component to develop fodder resources on common property resources/grazing
lands. Besides this, we need growth of a strong services sector in rural India.
Agri-business centres and agri-clinics are needed on a big scale. The current
focus is on how to make agriculture more attractive and rewarding to the
younger generation. It is imperative for the nation to produce food not only to
feed its more than one billion human population but also for an equal number of
livestock. At present the Sub-Mission on ‘Feed and Fodder Development’ under
National Livestock Mission (NLM) is under operation and addressing the problems
of scarcity of animal feed and fodder resources from arable and non arable
land. State government should underline on some of the policies and keep
priority for augmentation of forage production of CPRs. These policy issues
should be as under:-
Ø Pasture resource data base
especially for areas of CPRs in the country is lacking
Ø Programme for pasture
development and rejuvenation of existing pastures
Ø National grazing-cum-fodder
and pasture management policy should be there which is lacking
Ø Judicious use of available
crop residues (burning/destroying of crop residues treated as criminal offence)
Ø Use of hydroponic technology
for fodder production
Ø Promotion of fodder production
on bunds, under tree shades and orchards
Ø Promotion of seed production
of grasses by providing incentives to farmers / buy-back policy.
With these words I
inaugurate the International Grassland Congress, and I convey my best wishes
for its success. I hope that the outcome and recommendations including policy
issues from this international congress will be shared with ministry for
implementation. My special request to all of you, especially to our foreign
guests that find some time get the experience about culture and traditions of
this ancient land and enjoy its hospitality.
**********
Rabi Crops Sowing Crosess 242 Lakh Hactare
As
per preliminary reports received from the fields. The total area sown under
Rabi crops as on 20th November, 2015 stands to 242.16
lakh hectares.
Wheat has been sown/transplanted in 78.83 lakh hectares, pulses in 74.06
lakh hectare coarse cereals in 38.48 lakh hectares, oilseeds in 50.56 lakh
hectares and Rice in 0.24 lakh
hectares.
The details
of the area covered so far and that covered during last year this time is as
follows:
Lakh hectare
Crop
|
Area sown in
2015-16
|
Area sown in
2014-15
|
Wheat
|
78.83
|
107.35
|
Pulses
|
74.06
|
77.42
|
Coarse Cereals
|
38.48
|
30.87
|
Oilseeds
|
50.56
|
60.51
|
Rice
|
0.24
|
0.80
|
Total
|
242.16
|
276.94
|
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