New initiatives in the context of Agriculture Development Strategy for eleventh plan

1. New initiatives in the context of Agriculture Development Strategy for eleventh plan Upping the ante Department of Agriculture & Cooperation Ministry of Agriculture Government of India Mukesh Khullar Joint Secretary

2. New Initiatives • Strengthening Pulses Production Programs • Four pronged strategy on Agriculture Growth in the Budget 2009-10 • Agriculture Production • Food Processing • Credit • Reducing Wastage of produce • Nutrient Based Subsidy effective from April 1, 2010 (Fertilizers and Chemicals) • Rs. 100 crores for ‘MahilaKisanSashaktikaranYojana’ as a sub component of National Rural Livelihood Mission (Rural Development) • Additional Central Assistance of Rs. 1200 crores to Bundelkhand for drought mitigation (Rural Development)

3. Tax Concessions • Modernizing Mandis or warehousing • Concessional import duty of 5 % and service tax exemption for mechanised handling of food grains and sugar in Mandis • Central excise and service tax exemption to specified equipment for storage and warehousing of agriculture products • Promoting Cold chain infrastructure • Concessional customs duty of 5 % with full exemption from service tax to setting up of Cold storage facilities and Processing units for such produce. • Provide full exemption from customs duty to refrigeration units required for the manufacture of refrigerated vans or trucks • Promoting Farm Mechanization • Concessional customs duty of 5 per cent to specified agricultural machinery not manufactured in India; • Full exemption from excise duty to trailers and semi-trailers used in agriculture. • Transportation of produce • The transportation by road of cereals, and pulses to be exempted from service tax. Transportation by rail to remain exempt.

4. Agriculture Development Strategy in the 11th five year plan period

5. Main Objective Salient Feature RKVY and MMA Agriculture growth Full freedom to States NFSM Food production Strategically targeted ISOPOM Oil seeds production Strategically targeted NHM and TMNE Horticulture End to end program Micro Irrigation Water use efficiency Sprinklers and Drips NREGS Water Harvesting Small Farm Development Schemes Schemes

6. Key Challenges • Sustained higher production levels of food grains • More focused working especially for pulses • Regional disparity • Widening the food basket • Broad basing the risks of crop failure due to climatic variability • Rainfed area development • Convergence – mechanism for horizontal working? • Watershed management – Large scale replication of good models? • Risk mitigation for Climatic variability • Integrated farming system for diversifying farm portfolio – horticulture, fisheries, dairy etc. Wadi project of NABARD, Livelihood projects of World Bank? • Seed Rolling Production Plans for quantity of needed varieties– Seeds Mission? • Conservation Agriculture – National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture? • Effective innovative weather based Insurance products – savings linked crop insurance? • Increased buffer stocks for food grains – grain storage grid? • Efficient marketing supply chain • Scientific storage and management – fungible warehousing receipts? • Processing – private investments, logistics management? • Direct marketing – credible contract farming mechanism?

7. 4- pronged Strategy on Agriculture Growth Union Budget 2010 Ministry of Food Processing Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry of Agriculture Ministry of Finance

8. Focus on Pulses and oilseeds • Strengthening NFSM Pulses • Merger of ISOPOM for pulses with NFSM • More funds – about 1000 crores in next two years • Accelerated pulses production program (A3P) • Block demonstrations of soil nutrient and plant protection centric technology in 1000 units of 1000 hectares compact block each for five major pulses with an outlay of 700 crores • Provision for extension staff at unit level • Inclusion of Jharkhand and Assam States • More funds available under ISOPOM for oilseeds development • Integrated development of 60,000 pulses and oilseeds villages in rainfed areas with an outlay of 300 crores under RKVY • Watershed management and water harvesting • Community tanks • Field channels • Dry land farming • Watershed plus activities for crop development • Convergence with NFSM, ISOPOM, NHM, NREGA and NWDPRA

9. Next Steps for A3P • Prepare an action plan as per the guidelines for implementing A3P from April 2010 • Identification of beneficiaries and units among villages • Preparing unit wise district level plans • Ensure supply of gypsum and plant protection chemicals to identified beneficiaries through the designated agencies • Engage extension staff for unit level positioning and impart an orientation training • KVKs could be actively associated • Capacity building for pest monitoring and pest surveillance by NCIPM • Modalities for implementing integrated development of 60,000 pulses and oilseeds villages being worked out

10. Inter State Productivity Gaps Rice Production in (‘000) tons Yield in kg/ha

11. Eastern Region Development • Additional Rs. 400 crores provided for the agriculture development in Eastern Region comprising of Eastern UP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal • Funds would be released under RKVY. States are expected to prepare an action plan containing the following points • Identification of key technologies, constraints in development and inter se priority for implementation for visible impact • Situation report on current initiatives, preparation of multi year strategy for agriculture development in sync with the DAPs by pooling the resources from State plan, and convergence with other ongoing schemes • Preparation of projects to implement the strategy in a budget proposal worked out by each State • Allocation of budget for each State as per the proposal and approval of projects within an overall budget allocated for each State • Mechanism for regular monitoring of the progress of implementation of the projects • Detailed set of instructions would be prepared in consultation with the States for implementation from the Rabi season

12. Agri eco Zone wise Regional Strategy Lower Gangetic Plains Region (WB other than Purulia and hill districts) Middle Gangetic Plains Region (Eastern U.P. and Bihar) • Basically a rice mono cropped area • Increasing the cropping intensity by utilizing Rabi fallows after harvest of Kharif rice by promoting the cultivation of pulses and oilseeds • Diversification of upland rice areas which are less productive to suitable crops like pulses, oilseeds and millets. • Development of on-farm irrigation resources through exploitation of ground water potential which is abundant. • Improving subsurface soil drainage • Rice, wheat, sugarcane are the major crops. However, productivity is low. • Popularisation of Short duration high yielding varieties/hybrids of rice. • Promotion of maize cultivation especially in Rabi as it has high potential • Promotion of early maturing varieties of sugarcane for higher sugar recovery • Development of on-farm irrigation resources thorough exploitation of ground water potential • Cattle rearing, poultry, goat rearing and fish farming as an off farm activity.

13. Agri eco zone wise Regional Strategy Eastern Plateau & Hills Region (Parts of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh) East Coast Plains & Hills (Part of Orissa) • Management of rainwater harvesting and storage for increasing crop productivity • Promotion of High yielding varieties/hybrids especially that of rice • Expansion of area under High value cash crops and vegetables • Improvement in seed supply so as to increase the SRR • Improvement in productivity of crops in acidic soils through lime treatment • Rice is the lead crop in this zone. However, the productivity is low. High yielding varieties for water logged areas and upland areas needs to be propagated • Discouraging the cultivation of rice in marginal lands and diversifying in favour of oilseeds and pulses • Utilization of rice fallows for increasing the cropping intensity. • Rice-fish culture • Improving soil drainage

14. Sum up • Emphasis on Pulses through revamped programmatic interventions and prevailing good market price should help in achievement of production targets of pulses • Focus on Eastern Region that has huge potential would help macro level stability of agriculture production • Enabling policies on market development would bring in private investments for value addition to the harvests and efficiency gains in supply chain

15. New initiatives Better targeting and delivery of services Implementation is the key Thanks !! khullar.m@nic.in