The Hindu : National : Pawar calls for a golden revolution in agriculture

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004

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National

Pawar calls for a golden revolution in agriculture

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 19. The Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, today urged scientists to attain a golden revolution on the lines of the green and white revolutions achieved since Independence.

Addressing the 75th annual general meeting of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Mr. Pawar said the country must harness the rich diversity of horticultural crops in the country and make it competitive globally. For this, the issues of storage, packaging, transportation, processing and value addition need to be addressed urgently. Comparing the low productivity of crops such as potato and fruits in India with that of other countries, Mr. Pawar called for an all-round strategy for improving horticultural production. Listing the challenges that the agri research community must address on priority, he said work should be done on raising the productivity of crops and livestock, finding ways to reduce the cost of production and to provide quality planting material to farmers at reasonable prices.

Presenting the annual report for 2004, the Director-General of ICAR, Mangala Rai, said the country's premier agricultural research institute had collected 12,000 accessions of crops and their wild relatives from different parts of the country.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Minister of State Kanti Lal Bhuria, Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan, Vice-Chancellors, heads of agricultural universities and institutes from various States and senior officials from the Ministry.

Mr. Pawar gave away awards for outstanding contribution to farm research. The Sardar Patel Outstanding Institution Award was conferred on the Kerala Agriculture University for its work on plantation and spice crops. Ten per cent of the awards went to women agricultural scientists.

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