Agriculture270107.docVIP

EVERYTHING ELSE CAN WAIT BUT NOT AGRICULTURE During the course of prog No.782/2006 at RSC Belapur, on Hitech Financing in Agriculture, participants of the programme prepared and presented a slide show on the captioned topic in guidance of Principal Shri V Srinivasan, DGM. The presentation was so impressive that Principal requested to make it into an article for the benefit of all other staff members. Hence this article was conceptualised and put on paper by the participants lead by Mr. Abijith,T.K.. Agriculture Officer, B.O. G.B. Road, Palakkad, Kerala ……………………………………………………………………… India dawned to independence on 15th of August 1947. The freedom we achieved came from the long struggle of our great national leaders and freedom fighters. But all along the freedom brought with it the responsibility to feed millions of stomachs on our own. The country was not self sufficient in food and food scarcity persisted and famine was looming large. Country was pushed into a “Ship to Mouth Economy”, depending on the external supply for the basic food requirement. It was in this milieu, in the context of 1st Five Year Plan Pandit Jawarlal Nehru, the then Prime minister commented that: EVERYTHING ELSE CAN WAIT BUT NOT AGRICULTURE. Truly it reflected the urgency of situation and the paramount importance that the great leader attributed to the sector. As a result the Green Revolution emerged followed by the White and Yellow revolutions and finally the Blue revolution. From food scarcity our country marched to food security, and to food surplus. In the present context, to stop and think of the above words in the background of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation), the above words still stand as much valid and important as when they were said but in a slightly different sense. Truly the time for Second Green Revolution has come and this time the priorities are slightly different. Agriculture for Future, Why? For our countrymen, Agriculture is not merely an oc