‘Big task ahead to achieve food security by 2020’

Eminent experts in agriculture and horticulture on Tuesday cautioned that the country had a challenging task of increasing its food production from the present 240 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes by 2020, if it has to take care of the food security of its increasing population.

The task is challenging as the availability of land for agricultural operations is shrinking owing to urbanisation, and the availability of water is also reducing in contrast to the population that has been increasing at a fast pace, the experts noted in a panel discussion on ‘Technology as a driver of growth: ensuring farm prosperity’, organised in Bangalore by the IndoAsiancommodities.com, a website dedicated to agriculture and commodities trade.

Karnataka Krishi Mission Chairman S.A. Patil noted that food production had to be further increased to 325 million tonnes by 2025 in tune with the increase in population.

“The task has become further challenging as the present production level of 240 mt itself is a record for the country as such a bumper yield has been harvested for the first time, powered by a good monsoon in most of the States during the previous agricultural season,” Dr. Patil said. Stressing the need to adopt various technologies to increase productivity to achieve the stiff target, he pointed out that at present, there was a huge potential for increasing productivity levels in various food crops, including rice. While India produces only 2 to 2.1 tonnes of rice per hectare, the rice productivity level was as high as 6 tonnes an acre in China and 9 tonnes in Vietnam, he said.

Farmers’ role

Speaking on the occasion, K. Narayana Gowda, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore, said the farmer’s role would be crucial in achieving the food production target. “If at all we have to achieve this target, we need to stop the trend of farmers quitting farming due to low returns. We must instil confidence among farmers by increasing their incomes from agricultural operations and ensuring that they lead quality lives,” he said.

To make agriculture a profitable venture, adequate infrastructure facilities should be provided in rural areas, including marketing support, and help farmers adopt latest and innovative farm technologies, he said. Dr. Gowda — who got the ‘Best agricultural extension scientist of the country’ award for his work in 75 villages of Doddaballapur taluk where farmers’ incomes increased several folds by adopting integrated farming — said innovative measures, such as forming farmers’ groups should be considered for reducing agricultural input costs and increasing income.

Speaking on the occasion, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research Director Amrik Singh Sidhu explained how the horticultural sector had become a sunrise sector with huge potential for earning high revenues. Even as the growth rate of the agriculture sector had remained low, the growth rate of specific sections in horticulture, such as vegetables, spices and flowers had increased sharply, he noted. Komarla Hatcheries Southern operations vice-president Narendra Pashupathy also spoke on the occasion.

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