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Rajnath: no steps taken on second green revolution

NEW DELHI: There is some talk about the need for a second green revolution, but there is no sign of any steps being taken to achieve it, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said, while opening the debate on the Agriculture Ministry’s debate in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

In a hard-hitting speech, he said the gross capital formation in the farming sector had come down, nearly half the farmers had no access to banking and despite the widest agriculture extension service system in the world, and productivity for most crops was below the global average. It was well established that agriculture in India and farmers were in distress.

Mr. Singh suggested that one television channel should be dedicated to the farming community so that in every village they were able to get news and information related to agriculture. He said he remembered that when he was a child, farmers in his village would regularly tune in to radio programmes dedicated to farming.

Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru who had said “everything can wait but not agriculture,” he suggested the government give it the priority and the resources it deserved. While agriculture currently constituted 17 per cent of the GDP, spending on this sector was a mere 2 to 3 per cent.

He said attention would have to be paid to food processing to ensure profits from value addition, distribution of food streamlined and every effort made to ensure that food was not wasted. His charge was that 25 per cent of fruit and vegetables grown in India were wasted due to inadequate cold chains, lack of food processing units and lack of adequate transportation facilities that prevented farmers from reaching their produce to markets.

The debate is to continue on Monday when Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is expected to reply to the discussion.

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