Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, Union Minister of Science & Technology and HRD, Prof. Murli Manohar Joshi ji, Union Minister of Agriculture, Shri Nitish Kumar ji, Chief Minister, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Smt. Sheila Dikshit ji, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, Dr. Panjab Singh, Prof. A. B. Banerjee, Prof. Uma Kant, Dr. Mangala Rai, Members of the ISCA Council, Distinguished Delegates from India and Abroad, Guests, Members of the Press and Media, Ladies and Gentlemen!

It is indeed a unique opportunity for me to welcome our Chief Guest, Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, Prof. Murli Manohar Joshi ji, Shri Nitish Kumar ji, Smt. Sheila Dikshit ji and other distinguished guests and delegates. I thank each one of you for having graced this occasion.

This year's Science Congress is historic for the ISCA as this is the first Science Congress of the new millennium; it is being held for the first time on the campus of this prestigious Indian Agricultural Research Institute -the flagship of the "Green Revolution"; and the theme of the Congress, namely, "Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security" symbolizes the three basic needs which any civilized society must guarantee to its people.

The last century witnessed both the developments as well as destruction on an unprecedented scale. While the brighter side reflects the enormous contribution of science towards generating new knowledge, unfolding the mysteries of nature, fighting poverty, hunger and disease; the darker side reveals the adverse impact of population explosion, natural resource degradation, and social strife. However, on a balance sheet, positive developments dominated leading to betterment in the technological, economic and political fields. The new sciences such as biotechnology, space technology, information and communication technology have remarkably changed the boundaries of time, space and knowledge. Our understanding of nature and life is much better now than ever before. Thanks to the technological advances, the world has become a global village. Forces of competition, globalization, resource and platform sharing have all become more important now. Also, we move into the twenty-first century with a paradigm shift both in challenges and opportunities. We must realize that the only way to address new challenges and harness uncommon opportunities is to continue building excellence in science and technology. It is a matter of great pride that our scientists have excelled in the areas of agriculture, industry, atomic energy, defence, space, health, information, communication etc. demonstrating comparable returns from investments in R&D with those of the best in the world. We must accelerate this trend in future as well.

Towards an Era of Surpluses

Attaining food security had been the major objective before the entire nation since independence. When I was a Ph.D. student at this Institute during mid- sixties, we were importing around 8-10 million tonnes of food annually. Our food security was called 'Ship to Mouth', and was based on reports in newspapers as to which ship had landed on which port and had distributed food grains to which part of the country. 'Prophets of Doom' had also called us "Begging Bowl". We also remember the message of the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi who said, "No nation can live with pride unless it has the capacity to feed its people".

Thanks to the cutting edge of science, strong political will coupled with appropriate policy interventions and the hard labour of our farmers, India since independence achieved fourfold increase in food grain production as against threefold increase in population. It was indeed the commitment of our leaders and policy makers that we could build the required infrastructure, a very strong National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and the competent human resource that enabled us to usher in the "Green Revolution". Unfolding the success story of the "Green Revolution" not only gives us the satisfaction on food front but also provides the much needed self-confidence and self-respect to the nation. Let us remember that visionaries like Bharat Ratna late Shri C. Subramaniam, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug and late Shri. B. Shivaraman had been the key architects of our "Green Revolution". We are fortunate that World Food Laureate Dr. Swaminathan is with us here today.

Agriculture in India, like in many developing countries, continues to occupy a pivotal position, and contributes to about one-third of our national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nearly two-thirds of the workforce is employed in this sector. Also the overall national economic development largely depends on this sector. In the post independence period, a phenomenal growth in agriculture sector has been witnessed largely due to cutting edge of science turning challenges into hopes. We have travelled successfully from insufficiency to self sufficiency in food production. The Green, Blue, White and Yellow Revolutions are the examples of remarkable accomplishments, which many developing countries are yet craving for. It is heartening that the Indian agriculture is well on its own way to attain a new "Rainbow Revolution". These developments have also resulted in distinct gains in actual household consumption, leading to both qualitative and quantitative improvement in our diet. Despite occasional droughts, we have left behind an era of famines and the Indian agriculture has become resilient.

We have had a record harvest of 206 million tonnes last year and our buffer stock figure has crossed an all time high of 40 million tonnes. Today, we have also become the largest producer of milk (76 million tonnes), and the second largest producer of rice (88.25 million tonnes), wheat (74.25 million tonnes), fruits (40 million tonnes) and vegetables (88 million tonnes) in the world. All these accomplishments could not have been possible but for the sound technical backstopping provided by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) under the leadership of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Why This Theme ?

You should wonder as to why the theme of "Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security" has been chosen this time, when we have produced plenty of food, which we now find difficult to store and market. Obviously, there are pressing reasons for it.

First, even though we attained physical access to food, we are yet to ensure economic entitlement and ecological access to food in order to achieve household food security. Paradoxical as it may seem, India still has the world's largest number of poor people (around 250 million) who do not get two square meals a day.

Second, we need to ensure enough nutrition for our children suffering from protein energy malnutrition and other micronutrient deficiencies. The concentration of children requiring nutritional care is maximum (around 80 million) in India today than anywhere else. We also have maximum number of anemic pregnant women. Should we, therefore, not worry and do something tangible to combat these diseases of poverty?

Third, in our quest for comforts, we have inflicted more damage to our environment than ever before. Overexploitation of natural resources has disturbed the harmonious balance between man and nature. Notwithstanding advancements in science and society, we seem to be living in a much poorer and degraded world today than our forefathers. It is our bounden duty to provide a much better environment to our children and their children in future.

If these are the realities, how could one think of any theme other than "Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security". Any civil society must guarantee the birthright of everyone on this planet -enough food to sustain healthy and productive life.

In the FAO World Food Summit held in 1996, heads of different nations had reaffirmed, "the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free of hunger". Also there was a pledge of political will and commitment, "to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people by half their present level no later than 2015". The recent estimate, according to FAO, is that around 826 million people in the developing world do not have enough to eat and a fifth of the world's population, representing almost all these people, live in absolute poverty, on less than US $ 1 per day. Of these, as I stated earlier, almost 250 million alone live in India. Also it is now apprehended by FAO that the target of World Food Summit may not be achieved till 2030. We must, therefore, have a national commitment for a "Food Secure India" by 2015 -the original target agreed to by us. For this, we must move forward to double our food production in the next decade - a call given recently by our revered Prime Minister -Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji. We must generate technologies that are globally competitive, environment friendly and that conserve our natural resources, including the forests whose cover is presently suboptimal (20 per cent) as against the accepted global norm (33 per cent).

Emerging Challenges

There is already a wake-up alarm that the world could be rapidly approaching to its agricultural carrying capacity. Our natural resources will be increasingly at risk, from soil degradation, deforestation, water scarcity and contamination, bio- diversity loss and climate change owing to over-consumption and waste in rich countries, and population pressure in poor countries.

We are also losing bio-diversity at historic rates, with potentially catastrophic consequences. The world has lost half of its tropical forests during our lifetime. In some countries, the economic cost of producing clean water is even greater than the economic cost of producing oil. The world's marine fisheries are over- exploited resulting in decline in marine fish production.

Soils are being constantly degraded and destroyed, with profound economic costs. Our soils are more hungry than thirsty today. About 70 per cent of our soils are deficit in organic carbon (less than 1 per cent) and micronutrient deficiencies are being widely experienced throughout the country. Soil toxicity due to industrial effluents and use of chemicals and pesticides is affecting adversely both soil health and crop productivity.

Water is another important vital resource for economic development. It is projected that the present per-capita per annum water availability of 2001 m³ will reduce to the stress level of 1700 m³ in the next 2 to 3 decades. Further, the projected reduction in water availability to the agricultural sector from the present share of 89 to about 75 per cent by 2020 would adversely affect our capacity to produce more food.

Climate change and global warming caused by the emission of green house gasses have emerged as new threats. It is projected that South Asia may also have an increase in temperature between 0.1° to 0.3°C by 2010 and 0.4° to 2.0°C by 2070. The sea level is also expected to rise between 15 cm and 94 cm over the next century and the low-lying areas may get inundated. Moreover, the ozone depletion may lead to increase of ultra violet radiation and with adverse impact on earth's environment and the people.

Some of these problems stem from the process of intensification itself. As the size of the holding continues to shrink, the range of the income-enhancing options in agriculture narrows down. Land degradation and population pressure have forced the farmers to cultivate even the marginal lands. Besides, the public systems dealing with irrigation, credit, marketing and extension are finding it difficult to cope with the emerging demands especially in an environment of declining capital investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure, which has almost gone down by half (from 18 to 19 per cent) over the last two decades.

It is projected that a growing and urbanizing population with rising incomes will increase global demand for cereals by 35 per cent between 1997 and 2020 amounting to 2,497 million tonnes and for meat by 57 per cent that will amount to 327 million tonnes. However, growth in cereal yields is slowing .in both developed and developing countries and is projected to further slow down in coming decades. The net cereal imports by developing countries are forecast to almost double by 2020, with maximum absolute increase expected in East Asia and the largest relative increase in South Asia.

It is estimated that we shall need annually additional 5 million tonnes of food grains, besides large increases in oilseeds, fodder, fuelwood, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, eggs, fish, etc. All these reflect the pressure to produce more of diversified food at a much accelerated pace. Serious imbalances also underlie the existing scenario. Widening regional disparities in agricultural performance are also our concern. Rainfed areas (about 65 per cent) still continue to lag behind and in order to achieve "Evergreen Revolution", these gray areas will have to be made green. The plateauing of yields is also emerging in some crops and regions.

As stated earlier, the maximum number of people below the poverty line live in India alone. Our population is still growing at 1.7 percent thus adding almost one Australia every year. Almost half of the pre-school children suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition. In addition, vitamins and micronutrient deficiencies have become the cause of hidden hunger. People suffering from these maladies are largely concentrated in rural areas and urban slums. Other than their own labour, they hardly have any resources and skills.

The poverty in India is just not the lack of food and income, but also about disenfranchisement, social alienation, gender inequity, lack of security, voicelessness, and powerlessness. How can any society flourish with such a scenario, where rich-poor divide is increasing?

Another important challenge before us is to transform the scientific institutions into "new age" institutions characterized by efficient work culture, responsiveness, and cost-effectiveness. So, let us not make this a difficult transformation. We should build a knowledge-based system. We must use information technology as an instrument of research as well as of knowledge sharing, and also to function as virtual laboratories. Such efforts would also provide us a platform for innovative partnership both nationally and globally. Other challenges are: How do we use "new age" capacities to strengthen the web of relationships among farmers, consumers, civil society institutions, scientists, and policy makers? How can we keep costs down, and reduce red tapism? These are not just rhetorical questions, but are at the core of our quest for a prosperous future and new society.

The other major concern is to strengthen our position as producers of public goods in order to serve even the poorest of the poor, as well as those who are needy among the developing countries. But the task is indeed complex, especially due to new developments such as increased involvement of private sector, intellectual property protection and emergence of international regimes including WTO, that may restrict free flow of information and materials. We should find new and creative ways of working with our expanding clientele such as the private sector, NGOs, Farmers' Associations etc. We obviously have a challenging journey ahead for which we need to gear ourselves.

I believe that the most crucial issue before us is to continue building our human resource in order to compete globally and serve the diverse needs of our society. Emerging challenges will require a new breed of scientists and managers that have excellence in the field of new sciences such as biotechnology, information technology, environmental science, Geographic Information System (GIS), space science, health and other natural sciences. The strength of an organization/system is determined not by mere numbers but by the technical competence of its human resource. Hence, HRD be seen as a long-term investment in the national interest.

Globalization, as a consequence of WTO, linked with the international trade liberalization, opening up of economies, and a free flow of capital, labour, information and technology is a major paradigm shift making significant changes in the economic world. It has considerable potential to significantly influence both the food security and poverty either for better or worse, but its implications and consequences are not yet well understood.

Another important challenge is to ensure increased and secured funding for Science and Technology (S& T). To increase productivity and growth for ensuring better living standard and to reduce poverty and malnutrition, funding support for agricultural research will have to be stepped up to a minimum of 2 per cent of our agricultural GDP, as is the case with many growing economies.

Shared Vision

It is indeed most satisfying that for the first time in this Congress, a vision statement is being released by our Hon'ble Prime Minister, which is an outcome of wide consultation among intellectuals. It states that:

"By 2020, India will be free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and become an environmentally safe country. This, we believe, will be possible to achieve through accelerated social and economic development -by harnessing the advances in science, and blending them with our indigenous knowledge, wisdom and unique socio-cultural ethos. We believe India can banish poverty and emerge as a developed nation by promoting growth through efficient and sustainable use of our human, natural and other resources".

Future Strategy

It is important that any Vision is eventually translated into reality through strategic planning and programmes. For this, we need to determine our 'road ahead'. In the past, we have been successful through application of science, and I am sure, we shall succeed again in creating a rich and just society through an integrated scientific intervention.

Let me now spell out my strategy of "Panch Sutras" (consisting of 5 Ps) to realize this vision. These are: People, Productivity, Permanency, Policy and Partnership. While pursuing this strategy, we must underscore the importance of science and technology in achieving the desired national growth and development. There is indeed an urgency to keep our science and research at the cutting edge and relate it to the specific needs of the poor and oppressed. Research must ensure maximising returns per unit of investment and time, and it should link agriculture with public health, education and all other sciences. Let me now deal with these "Panch Sutras".

People

Thirty years ago, Dr. Norman Borlaug in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize had said that the Green Revolution had won a temporary success in man's war against hunger, which if fully implemented, could provide sufficient food for humankind through the end of the 20th century. But he had warned that unless the frightening power of human reproduction is curbed, the success of the Green Revolution would only be ephemeral. Today, while entering the 21st century, with Indian population having already crossed the one billion mark, we couldn't agree more with him.

Our experience in population management reveals that a target group oriented approach towards the poor, backward, uneducated, resourceless and especially the women is most effiective. Improvement in literacy, in general, and female literacy, in particular, should receive our highest priority. There is wide disparity in the literate population in different States. For instance, there is 90 per cent literacy in Kerala compared to only 39 per cent in Rajasthan. The gender difference in literacy is also quite appalling. While 86 per cent females are literate in Kerala, it is only 21 per cent in Rajasthan. Further, policy initiatives like changing property rights in favour of women, increasing the number of women extension workers, strengthening the thrift initiatives by women and decision making in agriculture have proved very helpful. Also the public health services and family welfare programmes in rural areas have helped. Population management is, therefore, most critical, or otherwise any effort made on the production front will always be thwarted by the population growth.

On account of very large and constantly expanding population base of the country, impact of efforts made on population control has been minimal. We may have to intensify these efforts uniformly across all segments of the society. For wider acceptance and adoption of population control measures, mass awareness through media coupled with easy access and availability of population control devices should be ensured.

We should also envision that every child born in India has a right to food, nutrition and healthy life. Traditional foods and crops, which are nutritious and eco-friendly, need to be promoted. We may also look for alternative foods and also improve their quality to address protein-energy-malnutrition problem. Organic food production, modern food blended with traditional ones and developing designer crops/products should receive our attention.

Fortunately, ours is largely a vegetarian society and thus dependence on meat as a source of protein is much less compared to other nations including China. Hence, comparatively, our food-feed competition will always be moderate. Besides several pulses that India grows, soybean is also a natural choice now for protein supplementation. Fighting hidden hunger and micronutrient deficiencies through fortification, supplementation, diversifying diets linked with changing food habits, breeding for designer crops such as golden rice or high quality protein maize (QPM) should receive the greater attention. The recommendations of the World Nutrition Congress regarding political commitment, community mobilization and participation, human resource development, improving food distribution and storage, improving food processing and safety, and effective management of information systems need to be addressed as a national priority.

While being one of the two most populous countries of the world could be a curse, I also see the brighter side of it. It is the people who are the most valuable asset of any nation and it is this power which determines our strength. Concurrent with the policy of population management, we must bring in policies that channelise our vast human resource into an enlightened society and make them responsible citizens committed towards national economic development. Towards nation building, as in China, we must generate enough work for the people while improving their skills in order to convert this invaluable human resource into a strong human power. The very strength of this power must be recognized and harnessed in our national interest.

Productivity

As agriculture seeks to be more productive and sustainable, it will need to be even more science-based than ever before to alleviate poverty. Often it is argued that our crop productivity and input use efficiency are quite low as compared to those of the developed countries. Obviously, I see this as an uncommon opportunity to improve productivity through effective integration and application of new science in various products, processes and services. Further, the comparative advantage of our products be based on uniqueness, differentiation and technology content. Intellectual capital and the technologies already generated are also to be effectively harnessed.

In a competitive environment, emphasis has to be put on efficient production systems. Coverage under high-yielding varieties will have to be further increased. Hybrid technology oriented policy, particularly under rainfed farming, needs promotion. India has already demonstrated world leadership in breeding hybrids of cotton, pearl millet (bajra), castor and pigeon pea (arhar). After China, we have also made breakthrough in hybrid rice technology.

Biotechnology will be the science of the 21^st century. Genetic engineering holds vast potential both for increasing productivity and conserving our natural resources. Support to both public and private sector initiatives in biotechnology is crucial at this juncture. India is fortunate to have created a separate Department of Biotechnology which is laying greater emphasis on both research and human resource development to make our public system strong. Considering new options and opportunities that this new science offers, we need to move aggressively to reap the likely benefits. Also the application of biotechnology must address concerns for bio-safety and protect the interests of our resource- poor farmers. The research agenda must clearly address both the benefits and the concerns. Besides biotechnology, the challenge to double our food production in the next decade would require application of all other sciences for sustainable advances in crop, animal and aquatic productivity and for strengthening our food, health and livelihood security system.

As both population and standard of living rise, the overall demand for energy will also rise dramatically. It is forecast to double by 2025. Besides tapping new sources, we may have to adopt energy conservation technologies vigorously. India has, over the years, successfully used nuclear energy and techniques for peaceful purposes. As the agricultural operations become more energy demanding, the role of nuclear power as a source of energy would become more important. Isotopic and radiation methods have been extensively used to measure and monitor nutrients and water in the soil-crop system. Similarly, radiation has been used to create genetic variability in desired characters to breed new varieties that have higher yield, improved resistance to diseases and tolerance to abiotic stresses. Now we shall have to use these techniques more for post-harvest management and value addition in future.

Power generation from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, tide, biogass and biomass is becoming increasingly attractive, though their capacity to meet the overall energy demand is assessed to be marginal. The options of commercial development of fusion power, accelerator driven reactors, agri- electronics, bio-diesel, alcohol for running tractors and engines, gasification of biomass for thermal and mechanical application, fuel cell technology for electricity generation and stand alone power units to run on biomass etc. need to be vigorously persued. But all these options will require effective research partnership, both national and international.

Similarly, the role of space technology and other tools of research such as Geographic Information System (GIS) and crop modelling in ensuring productivity estimates for food security is also important. We also need to use remote sensing to discriminate crops suffering from various stresses with those of diseases. If space technology can be directed to forecast natural calamities such as droughts, floods, cyclone etc., or assess their adverse impact, we can obviously take up effective contingency measures, including insurance against crop failures.

Even there is a big gap between the yields obtained in the research fields and those in the farmers' fields, which need to be bridged through a revamped extension system that ensures minimum technology dissemination loss. Hence, a dedicated cadre of technology agents will be required to effectively transfer the modern technologies that are blended with traditional knowledge and wisdom. The use of modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the dissemination of new and sustainable eco-friendly technologies through innovative institutional mechanisms like Agri-clinics will accelerate the transfer of technology (TOT) process in future.

The vast potential available with non-crop and non-food grain enterprises to enhance income, provide employment and improve nutrition remains under exploited. Changing consumption and demand patterns and new trade opportunities have provided impetus to greater diversification of farming system laying more emphasis on horticulture, milk, poultry, fish and other animal products, fibers, mushroom, spices and condiments, medicinal and aromatic plants and agro- forestry. In this context, value addition, post-production technology and agri- business aspects would require greater scientific input including optimal use of social and management sciences.

Focus on improving efficiency also implies stress on post-production management, value addition, minimization of losses, processing, storage, observing sanitary and phytosanitary measures, packaging, transport and marketing, agro-industry and agri-business. Efficient utilization of vast quantity of crop residues and byproducts will be highly beneficial provided we generate appropriate, technologies that suit our conditions.

Permanency

Permanency is a reflection of sustainable agricultural development while ensuring conservation of our natural resources. Hence, technologies that are around sustainable farming systems with least dependence on costly input use including chemicals, will have to be promoted in future. Improving input use efficiency would also be a key factor for attaining permanency. A paradigm shift in our research agenda focussing more on systems' approach rather than, commodity-oriented research will be critical for sustaining agriculture in future.

In future, a twin pillar strategy centered around: first, genetic enhancement involving genes that can ensure responsiveness to low inputs and also biotic and abiotic stresses, and second, efficient production management through agronomy and agri-engineering practices would be central to sustainable agriculture. Emphasis will have to be laid more now on precision farming, conservation tillage, use of stress tolerant genotypes, input (soil, water, fertiliser, seeds, pesticides, energy, etc.) use efficiency and blending of our rich traditional knowledge with that of modern science, etc.

We are also rich in our bio-diversity and possess valuable genes for both biotic and abiotic stresses. However, we are losing our bio-diversity at historical rates with potentially catastrophic but as yet uncertain consequences. We also have to protect our rich plant, animal and fish genetic resources through appropriate conservation technologies and IPR regime. The recent success in protecting our rights for neem, haldi and basmati rice provide us the much needed confidence to guard against such threats in future. We need to have appropriate IPR regime and sui generis systems which can provide legal instruments to protect available genetic resources.

Overexploitation of natural resources to increase agricultural production is also required to be checked through research on management of climate, soil, water, plants and animals. The el nino, super cyclone, and global climate change are emerging as serious threats that would need disaster management strategy based on scientific intervention. Also the problem of contaminants, effluents and waste management needs to be addressed through eco-friendly technologies.

We must conserve both our soil and water resources through appropriate land use planning and monsoon management strategy. To obviate the problems of soil health, an integrated plant nutrient management (IPNM) approach assumes significance, which would require an integrated, inter-disciplinary and inter- departmental effort. Balanced use of chemical nutrients with organic fertilisers on soil test based recommendations can ensure long range productivity and economic returns. We also need to place greater emphasis on residue management, legumes as intercrops, and bio-fertilizers. Our focus must now be more on management rather than on manufacture of fertilisers. Similarly, to combat diseases and pests we will have to adopt aggressively the integrated pest management (IPM) technologies. In this endeavour, synergistic use of resistant crop varieties, appropriate cultural practices, application of biopesticides and use of biocontrol agents will be necessary.

Integrated watershed management is now an accepted rational approach for sustainability of our ecosystems through restoration of degraded soils, efficient water harvesting and improvement in overall productivity. In this context, the first and foremost need is to have an integrated approach involving the people and the R&D institutions to provide required technical backstopping.

Policies

Appropriate polices are evidently the most powerful instruments to accelerate economic development. Thanks to the unstinted support and encouragement given by our successive Prime Ministers from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both agricultural research and concern for poverty received priority attention. Recent announcement of the National Agricultural Policy is yet another testimony to this. It has targeted 4 per cent annual growth in agricultural sector which is a precursor to alleviating poverty, increasing employment and overall national economic development.

Our past growth in agricultural research and development to a great extent was policy driven. This enabled us to build one of the largest National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in the world, which comprises of 5 multidisciplinary national institutes (four being deemed to be universities), 45 central research institutes, 30 national research centres, 4 bureaux, 10 project directorates, and 80 All India Co-ordinated research projects, besides 30 State Agricultlural Universities (SAUs) located across the country and one Central Agricultural University. The ICAR has an impressive frontline transfer of technology network (Lab to Land and Land to Lab), consisting of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (314 KVKs dispersed throughout India), Institute Village Linkage Programmes (70 IVLPs) and 40 Agricultural Technology Information Centres (ATICs). All these lay major thrust on technology assessment and refinement before transfer of technologies at the farmers' fields.

In my view, the situation of surpluses and low commodity prices in recent years have somehow lulled us into a false sense of security -a belief that the agricultural revolution has been won and will continue to be with us. Such a complacency could be catastrophic, especially in view of the fact that we will have to feed 300 million additional people by 2020, requiring additional 100 million tonnes of food grains. Also the investment by national governments and international agencies in agricultural research and development is reflecting a declining trend. At the same time, it is unreasonable to expect that the private sector will either invest heavily or focus mainly on the problems of the rural poor. We, therefore, see a vital role for our national government and the international agencies to continue investing in agricultural research. In view of the global consensus, I strongly feel that we must invest heavily on scientific research. You may recollect that even an advanced country like Japan had recently doubled its investment on R&D when its leadership in science and technology was threatened. Therefore, investment in scientific research means harvesting both peace and prosperity.

Rural oriented policies are needed to create conditions for adopting improved technologies. Since most of our land holdings are small and fragmented, the programmes of land reforms and development should be given high priority. Consolidation of holdings, freeing the lease market for land, updating and improvement of land records, computerization and issue of land pass books to the farmers will, obviously, give a fillip to farm investments.

We also need to accelerate the flow of institutional agricultural credit and public investment in developing rural infrastructure such as minor irrigation (especially shallow wells), roads, electrification, markets, etc. On rural credit, self- help groups need to be promoted alongwith micro-financing.

The new world trade regime, following formation of WTO, has also thrown many challenges. As GATT negotiations were being finalised, we had hoped that liberalisation of trade would provide large scope for promoting farm export and would have positive impact on our farm income as well as growth of Indian agriculture. The last few years have dispelled all such expectations. There has been a sharp decline in international agricultural prices since 1996. The dollar value of farm export earnings has also declined since then and domestic prices rule higher than the international prices, which has made imports attractive. The country has been placed in a piquant situation -with a feeling of uncertainty and despondence among Indian farmers who feel threatened by the unstable economic environment following liberalisation. Obviously, the new trade regime would require trade regulation initiatives on tariffs, quick response to dumping and aggressive negotiations in the forthcoming trade talks on subsidies in developed agriculture, neo-protection through sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) restrictions and social clauses. On domestic front, we need to improve efficiency of domestic production and more importantly of marketing and processing. Beside improvements in technology, this would require domestic policy reforms and strong emphasis on improvement in infrastructure. R & D interventions in efficiency enhancement, quality improvements, SPS, quarantine, market intelligence. IPR and international access, etc. would substantially upgrade our capability to meet the new challenges.

Producing enough food is not the sufficient condition for social welfare. Food must reach to the poorest of the poor. In the past, several government-sponsored programmes were launched to meet the food availability and nutritional security in rural areas. These programmes were effective in alleviating poverty and improving our food security. In the new economic regime, these programmes be viewed in the context of livelihood security. Poor must be protected to meet his basic needs.

Partnership

Mutual interdependence and strong complementarities at various levels of scientific pursuit, information dissemination and development process make it imperative to solicit partnership from the grassroots to the international level. This partnership refers to:
i) involvement of local people in problem identification, research planning, technology generation and technology transfer,
ii) involving NGOs and other voluntary organisations and local institutions,
iii) linkages among private sector, industry and public sector research,
iv) linkages and collaborations among public research systems and institutions, and
v) knowledge sharing and technical cooperation at the international level.

There is an obvious need to reorient our research agenda in a consultative mode by involving all the stakeholders. Research planning should shift from 'top down' to 'bottom up' approach. This paradigm shift is extremely important to focus on need based research that is consistent with the farmer's operating environment, constraints, and resource availability. Similarly, NGOs and other organisations can also be of great help in identifying need based research agenda and effective transfer of technology.

The entire scientific environment is becoming highly challenging and complex requiring strong inter-disciplinarity and more dependence on basic and fundamental sciences. We have to shed compartmentalisation approach and forge interaction among various scientific organizations like ICAR, CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, ICMR, BARC, ICSSR etc.

There are certain areas such as biotechnology where scientific advances can be much faster through private sector involvement. Private sector and industry have also the comparative advantage in multiplying, provisioning and marketing the end products ensuring required benefits to the end users. We need to create viable, legal, remunerative and enabling environment for participation of the private sector in order to realise our goal of food, nutrition and environmental security.

Given the commonality of problems faced by most of the countries in agricultural production and development, it is useful to cross-fertilize various experiences. Moreover, ensuring food and nutritional security , efforts towards healthy environment are being made by a number of countries. Thus, sharing of knowledge, resources and facilities and scientific exchanges would be mutually rewarding. In such efforts, arrangements like providing of networks, establishment of virtual laboratories, knowledge platforms and linkages among NARS-NARS, NARS-CGIAR and NARS-ARls would play a significant role towards food, nutrition and environmental security. Global partnership is also needed to address the problems transcending national boundaries like global warming, cyclones, el nino, earth quakes etc. Science aiming at the international public good research obviously requires global partnership on principles of mutual trust and benefit sharing.

Epilogue

We all know that any national development comes from years of dedicated efforts and ingenuity -step by step, experiment by experiment, course correction by course correction and application by application.

The science had always been the vanguard of past successes. In order to transform not only the agriculture but the entire national economy, we shall need new science. New science would demand new innovative approaches and the new problems shall demand new solutions. Therefore, we must act fast to bring in decisive change that can ensure us quick wins.

Whenever, I meet farmers or see their fields, I often feel that they need our help. They need awakening and they need research. Our farmers need help in awakening their farms to the promises and challenges of tomorrow. We have an extraordinary opportunity to re-shape, re-dedicate and re-energize the science that has direct relevance to the problems of these fields.

All these would be possible, if right institutions are in place, right human resource is available, enabling environment exists, inter-institutional, inter-regional and inter-national linkages exist and access to knowledge, both new and traditional is blended together. It is the technology led society with competent human resource that we need to build and nurture, or else we shall lag behind. Also the target of achieving 9 per cent growth, in general, and 4 per cent in agriculture during the Tenth Plan period will not be easy. There has to be a paradigm shift from input based technology to resource conservation technology. Our demonstrated strengths in science through Green and White revolution, atomic power, satellite launch, missile test, ICT revolution etc. are some of the visible indicators of science led progress. These advancements give us the confidence about our scientific might and reflect that Indian Science in the new millennium will lead and not just follow. For required technological innovations, public scientific organisations are now fully geared to demonstrate our ability to convert the challenges into opportunities. With these strengths, we have excel'ed in the past and being an optimist, I am confident that, come what may, we shall face the new challenges successfully in future as well.

Finally, let me end on a personal note. I feel very honoured to address this first Congress of the new millennium that too on the precincts of a great institution where I studied and had good fortune to learn from visionaries such as Dr. B.P. Pal, Dr. A.B. Joshi, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and Dr. H.K. Jain. At that time, many like me got the inspiration to serve the nation with best of our ability and dedication. What a change indeed, today I see a vibrant Indian agriculture with plenty of food grains in our buffer stock. We have now to move towards an evergreen revolution through diversified agriculture, precision farming, resource conservation and value addition to attain in true sense the required food, nutrition and environmental security for our people. Let us resolve to make India a developed nation. Let us build the new generation that is fully competent. Let us nurture our institutions for the required excellence. And let us create enabling environment through supportive policies to accomplish this goal soon.

In the sixties, when I was a student here, I did not believe that India will move from food deficit to a food surplus country. If this could happen, why can't our younger generation present here dream for a hunger free and environmentally safe India? Let us pledge to achieve this dream by the year 2007, when we celebrate the 'Shasthipurti' (60th year) of our independence. At the end, let me wish you all a very happy new year .

Jai Hind.

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