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Agri panel suggests steps to raise grain output


A task force, set up by the agriculture ministry, has recommended a slew of measures to increase India’s stagnating grain production.

The panel has advised adoption of new technologies, water conservation and more efficient water management, especially in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh—known as ‘the food bowl of India’. The task force also suggests taking green revolution to the eastern region. It is hopeful that the measures would check the slowdown in the growth of grain production since the mid-nineties and help in increasing net sown area.

The task force, which was set up towards the end of last year, was headed by the agriculture secretary, and its members included representatives of ICAR, ministries of power and water resources, departments of animal husbandry, rural development and land resources, National Rainfed Area Authority and the Planning Commission. Its mandate was to “suggest short-term and medium-term recommendations on efficient management of water, power and other inputs to maximise agricultural production on a sustainable basis”.

The panel submitted its report in June this year while the action-taken report on its recommendations was finalised only late last month.

The report, after taking into account the food production graph over the years, displayed its disappointment over the declining trend in its growth rate. The mean food production during the last decade revolves around 209.68 million tonnes with a coefficient variation of 8%. After factoring in considerations such as changes in preferences, tastes, life-styles, occupational structure and growing urbanisation, it calculated that the demand for grain (including cereals and pulses) was expected to grow to 236 million tonnes by 2011 and 276 million tonnes by 2020-21.

“To meet the projected demand, production needs to increase each year by about 1.01% for rice, 1.10% for wheat, 2.55% for coarse cereals and 2.48% for pulses,” the report pointed out, adding: “These required growth rates are higher than the growth rates experienced during the last decade in case of pulses and coarse cereals.”

It was felt that the projected demand could be met only by raising production of grains, oilseeds and sugarcane. But this was easier said than done. Over the last 30 years, the panel noted that the net sown area had remained static at about 140 million hectares, and the prospects of raising it were extremely difficult because of the growing pressure on land for other purposes.

Moreover, the food bowl of India, it was felt, had reached its saturation point in terms of grain production. Also, there was a large gap between the productivity of rice and wheat in the eastern and western states. The ability of states such as Punjab, Haryana and western UP to contribute more to the food stocks had become suspect because of the “over-exploitation” of water resources and diminishing soil fertility. The practice of supplying electricity to farmers at subsidised rates in Punjab and Haryana had increased the debts, and the losses, of their state electricity boards.

Besides advocating extension of the green revolution to the eastern states, the task force listed a string of recommendations for a better, more efficient management of water, power and other inputs to optimise food production in the northwestern states.

“Sustainable groundwater development and management in the over-exploited northwest region needs to be taken up by incorporating artificial recharge of groundwater and rainwater harvesting, conjuctive use of surface water and ground water, management of poor and marginal quality groundwater, water conservation by increasing water use efficiency and regulation of groundwater development,” the task force suggested.

Besides, it stressed on the urgent need to take up schemes of artificial recharge of groundwater in the states of Haryana, Punjab, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat. A case in the point was the Central Ground Water Board’s estimate that about 700 million cubic metre of surface runoff flows out of Haryana every year. “The states will have to be sensitised that surplus run-off could be channelled to micro-storages which can be developed using MGNREGA funds,” the report said.

In states such as Haryana and Punjab, which have been staring at declining water levels, the report said that there must be regular and accurate assessment of actual groundwater use in both rural and urban areas. A close scrutiny of further expansion programmes and separation of feeders for domestic and agricultural power and its timely, but well-controlled, supply is necessary, it said.

The task force also built a case for diversification of crops in these areas.