Agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar today called on agricultural scientists to work for doubling agricultural productivity to meet the growing demand for food and feed.
This would require reducing post-harvesting losses, tackling environmental issues, enhancing production of foodgrains, specially pulses oilseeds, and harnessing potential in dairy and fisheries sectors, he said.

Addressing scientists at the foundation day of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) here today, Shri Pawar said, "There is an unprecedented degradation of land and groundwater resources, further compounded by deteriorating soil health in most parts of the country."

He said the deceleration in the rate of growth of total factor productivity needed to be reversed and agricultural productivity must be almost doubled to meet the growing demand for food and feed. "It is a matter of concern that losses due to inadequate post-harvesting handling are enormous. The storage, transportation, processing, value addition and marketing of farm produce need to be improved to enhance household food, nutritional and livelihood security. "

Pawar also said that immediate attention required to be paid to enhancing and sustaining the foodgrain production in the context of competitive demand for resources, specifically agricultural land and water and enhancing production of pulses and oilseeds, which are central to an average Indian diet.

"With the objective of increasing the production of pulses and oilseeds, we had a detailed discussion with the states last year and a strategy session is contemplated on 9th and 10th of this month," he said. "I see a great potential in dairy and fisheries that are upcoming sectors, with demonstrated annual average growth rates of 3.4 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively, the latter particularly in inland aquaculture. A characteristic feature of the produce from these, along with horticulture is the perishability, for which extensive cold chain and warehousing infrastructure is essential. We need to augment warehousing facilities for additional foodgrains as well."

Pawar also highlighted the need to bring the benefits of economic reforms to the agriculture sector and to increase the income of farm workers. "Economic reforms initiated in the country in early 1990s have put our economy on a higher growth trajectory," he said, adding, "This happened mainly due to rapid growth in non-agriculture sector.

"However, faster growth in non-agriculture sector did not help in shifting work force from agriculture to non-agriculture sector. The work force engaged in agriculture between 1980-81 and 2006-07 witnessed a very small decline, from about 60 per cent to 52 per cent. This has created a serious disparity between agriculture and non-agriculture, and urban and rural India.

The per worker income in non agriculture sector more than doubled in the last 25 years, whereas in agriculture the increase has been marginal. With the result, a non-agricultural worker earns five times more income than the agricultural worker," he said.

Eminent agricultural scientists and member of parliament, Dr M S Swaminathan and Director General ICAR, Dr. Mangala Rai also spoke on the occasion.

Agriculture and Food Minister also released a new publication of NAAS, State of Indian Agriculture, which documents the state of different sectors within agriculture and critical areas that need urgent attention.