Need to Revitalize and Transform the National Agricultural Research System

Abstract

I am pleased to have an opportunity to write this Editorial for Agricultural Research, the official journal of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India. I congratulate the Academy for having taken this initiative to publish original research papers, critical reviews and opinion articles addressing issues related to agricultural research for development. It is a very timely initiative, as the world faces enormous challenges in ensuring food-andnutrition security of the fast-growing population. These challenges can only be met by cutting-edge science and fast application of emerging technologies for sustainable agricultural growth and development. I wish the new journal great success in promoting high quality scientific research in various disciplines of agricultural sciences, and formulation of policies for agrarian prosperity. India has always recognized that a prosperous, productive and sustainable farm economy is the cornerstone of equitable and inclusive growth. The Indian economy is based in part on planning through its five-year plans, with emphasis on agrarian economy. The first Five Year Plan, introduced by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, addressed mainly the agrarian sector, including investments in dams and irrigation. During the last seven years, the country has pursued policies to revitalize agrarian economy, and adopted a multi-pronged strategy to improve returns to farming sector and step up investment in augmenting the rural infrastructure [1]. These policies have begun to pay off. The country has achieved a new plateau in food-grain production, exceeding 250 million tonnes during 2011–2012, an all-time record for the country. The production of grain-legumes, which are the main source of proteins in Indian diet, has touched 18 million tonnes, crossing the barrier of 15 million tonnes. The country is producing today more milk, more fruits, more vegetables, more sugarcane, more oilseeds and more cotton than ever before. The agricultural growth is expected to be about 3.5 % per annum during the current 11th Five Year Plan (2007–2012). This is commendable, but we must improve upon it in the 12th Five Year Plan to achieve a minimum growth of 4 % or even higher. This calls for a very determined effort in many areas including investment in irrigation, investment in watershed management, provision of credit, provision of marketing support, etc. One of the key elements in that effort must be the contribution of agricultural research, and I take this opportunity to focus on this area. I am aware that at any given time there is bound to be a gap between the yields obtained under the field conditions and the yields that can be achieved under ideal farming conditions. That difference is quite substantial at present, and it represents the failure of the system. In the short run, it is the job of the administration to close this gap, and our agricultural strategy must give high priority to this effort. This is not the job of research scientists, but it does require close collaboration between the scientists, technologists and the administration on the ground. We must do better in this area than we have done thus far. One of our major concerns is that our extension services system is no longer sufficiently robust. The First Green Revolution was achieved with the support of an effective rural extension and research infrastructure. At that time, panchayats (village self-governance), rural agricultural staff, agricultural scientists and district level officials actively collaborated to create a robust extension services system. We need now to revitalize the extension services system. The Krishi Vigyan M. Singh (&) Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi 110011, India e-mail: pmosb@pmo.nic.in