Indian Dairy Association (West Zone)

Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Inagural Address XXXV Dairy Industry Conference
Kolkatta, November 23 2006

Hon’ble  Minister, Mr. Anisur Rahaman; President, Indian Dairy Association, Mr. Animesh Banerjee; Chairman, National Dairy Development Board, Dr. (Miss) Amrita Patel; Prof. A.K. Bandyopadhyay; Dr. R. Chattopadhyay; Dr. Sushil Kumar; Dr. Raja Rathinam; other very distinguished participants here from different parts of the country, I am very honoured to be here with you, because this is one industry, which has made our nation proud. So when I was invited, I came here to salute you, rather than say something which you would not know. Dr. (Miss) Patel will enlighten you with the latest developments. Also some of the challenges have already been mentioned by Mr. Animesh Banerjee.

This is one sector, which we know has grown  numerically and in quantitative terms we are very rich in our animal wealth, genetic diversity, almost everywhere, whether it is buffalo, cow, goat, sheep, etc. and now poultry industry is also doing very well. Livestock industry as a whole has done very well. At the moment, we are finding the opposite in the crop-based agriculture. The contribution of the crop husbandry in the agriculture GDP is not growing or sometime stagnant or coming down, while the contribution of the livestock sector is going up. Whatever growth we are having in the agriculture sector, a large part of it is coming from the livestock sector.

I want to thank you all for your contributions, but as mentioned by the President, IDA, there is no time to relax; there are many new problems. Also, the problems of how to increase the income of dairy farmers by value addition to their primary products and how to provide farm animals with enough nutrition are the challenges we now face.

I want to present before you a few points made by the National Commission on Farmers of which I had the privilege of chairing. The last report presented to Hon'ble Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Sharad Pawar on October 4th, last month. The First Report was presented to him in December 2004, which deals with some of the needs of our dairy industry. In our country, crop livestock integration is both the way of life and means to livelihood. While replying to a question asked in the parliament that why there are so many suicide case in Vidharbha — a dry place, whereas equally dry place like Rajasthan does not have such cases. The answer given by the Minister was “in Rajasthan, there is a multiple livelihood opportunity, particularly from the livestock sector. Dairy, livestock and livelihood are very intimately related”.

I recall my first visit to Anand in 1954 — the dairy capital of India. Tribhuvan Das Patel and later Dr. Kurien joined him, they narrated the story of how the Amul arose. We should think of Sardar Ballabhbhai Patel not only in terms of the person who unified India, a very disparate India, which was given to us by the British, but also as the father of the Amul movement. In 1947, he not only brought all states together, but had the pragmatic common sense in suggesting how we can overcome a problem.

I mention here these days, since there is lot of fear of multinationals and various other kinds of exploitations. Sardar Patel’s answer was very clear that one must organise oneself. That is how the cooperative movement started. I have seen in your programme, you are going to deliberate on the subject of how to move the cooperative movement further. What changes, what refinement one has to make, in order to make them more relevant to today's need. I think we should remember these early pioneers — Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr. V. Kurien and now Dr. (Miss) Amrita Patel, who have really taken our dairy industry forward.

Dairying is one sector, which is making continuous progress! As Mr. Banerjee had said, milk production has almost reached 100 million tonnes. While, we are still struggling to produce 200 million tonnes of food grains, but 100 million tonnes of milk and also the growth in other products, like meat and poultry, etc. apart from sheep and goat, are remarkable ones. But there are problems, which are showing in some respect. We had in our last report, proposed a National Policy for Farmers. We have a number of policies for agriculture. Since Independence there have been several Commissions for Agriculture, but unfortunately there is nothing for farmers — the person behind agriculture.

In our definition for farmers, you will find from the reports, which are available to you in Hindi and English and also on our website, you will find that our very first goal in National Policy is ‘how to increase the income of the farmers?’ In other words, the orientation from just million tonnes from milk and million tonnes from food grain, to what does the person who produces them gets and how far their economic condition has improved. For example, we talk about 8 per cent growth in economy but obviously a large percentage of population, which is nearly 60 per cent are not deriving benefits from this growth. There may be secondary and tertiary impact, I don’t say no impact at all.

But the fact remains that agrarian crisis is deepening. Agrarian crisis means crisis for everyone — crops, animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and so on. We should measure our agricultural progress not merely in million tonnes in any commodity but also percentage of growth in the net income of the farmers. This is why we had placed great emphasis on the net income of farmers.

Our definition of farmers is a very wide ranging one. Farmers will refer to both men & women, include landless agricultural labourer, tenants, small and marginal and sub-marginal cultivators, farmers with larger holdings, livestock and poultry rearers, fishery communities, small plantation farmers and so on. So that is a very comprehensive definition of all those who are deriving their livelihood from natural resources, land and water particularly and also bio-diversity, forest products. This is major section of our community and it is important we look at their problem.

We have also placed considerable emphasis on agricultural education, including veterinary and animal sciences education. We are fortunate to have a number of universities now, apart from agricultural universities, there are veterinary and animal science universities, there are fisheries universities, and some of them are combined. I think all these have now to produce a new category of entrepreneurs to stimulate the growth of different farm enterprises, may be dairy industry, sheep and wool industry, etc.

If you want to make a progress, I think the NDDB has shown the way. If we want to make a progress, there has to be a symphony approach. For example, we talk about Green Revolution of the 60s. It happened because four major ingredients of rapid advance that came together. First is technology, second is the services, which made the technology available to small farmers like seeds, etc. Thirdly, market policies, input output pricing policies, public policies. Today assured and remunerative marketing holds the key to anything; otherwise how will a farmer survive? Finally farmers own enthusiasm and participation. When all these combined together, then we see a rapid progress!

Let me say a few words about basic assets of agriculture. First is land, which is now very much under the scanner, because good & prime farm land are going out of agriculture. This is happening in most of the countries. But what should be our land use policy? We are a population of 110 crores people, and with all our population stabilization policies, the population will go up to 150 crores in the next 30 years or so. Under those conditions, how shall we manage the food budget?

Let me give you one example. In 1971, we built a stock of 10 million tonnes of food grains and that was an important step. Indira Gandhi knew the relationship between food sovereignty, national sovereignty and food security. She was very keen to build up stocks in order to maintain an independent foreign policy. If we did not have enough food grain in our granaries, we would have faced political difficulty at the time of the liberation of Bangladesh. Therefore, food security has much wider implications, apart from the need for feeding our own people. In the case of land, prime land, whatever is remaining now, must be utilised for agriculture farming. If there is a need of land for industry or other purposes, it should be marked after careful analysis of land classification.

Those land which are not good for agriculture, could be marked for other alternative uses, like special economic zones. For example, the biological potential of the land for farming will have to be mapped and the good land must be preserved. This can be done so that agricultural dark spots can be converted into industrial bright spots. Industry and agriculture can grow in a harmonious way, mutually reinforcing way. There is also need for reviewing our Land Acquisition Act. The present formula is anti-farmer and the people are compelled to sell their land at low price, largely because they have no other way. So, we have recommended that Land Acquisition Act must be reviewed and made more pro-farmer.

Water is another major asset for both animal husbandry and agriculture. Water is going to be a serious constraint which is well-known to you and we have to work hard, both in augmenting supply, particularly mandatory rain-water harvesting and also demand management as to how to improve efficiency of farming. In fact, next year from June 2007 to May 2008, the Ministry of Water Resources have said, they would like to see it as a water year, focal theme being more income per drop of water. A detailed action plan has been developed for this purpose. About almost one village in every block of the country, all hill zones, coastal zones, arid zones, semi-arid zones, and so on will be covered.

A method by which we can demonstrate the best available knowledge, how to increase income which means production should also go up. It may be more milk, more fish, etc. How to increase the income per drop of water? I think our orientation should go along those lines. There is enormous scope for improving the efficiency of water use. Recently, the Govt. of India has set up National Rain-fed Area Authority, in order to help in promoting rain-fed agriculture.

In rain-fed area, animal husbandry holds a key to income security and nutritional security of the farmers. I hope, this National Rain-fed Area Authority would become a really very important source of developing methods by which we can augment our production and income from the available water.

We have also recommended in the very first report, Livestock Feed and Fodder Corporations at the State Level. It would not be like a Food Corporation of India, but as a service organisation and as a facilitating body, as a hand-holding body, to self-help groups of people, men, women or jointly. They can then produce and supply pure and good seeds, good planting material. We also recommended that big State farms, which are there almost in every State may be made available to the self-help group to produce fodder and also to maintain some pure stocks of local breeds of cattle.

Our milk production is going up, although the productivity per animal is very low. A larger percentage of composition of milk is buffalo milk, which is a dominant one. There have been some questions of remunerative pricing.

I also want to salute the poultry industry. They have done a remarkable work in terms of improving productivity. They have imitated some of the steps taken in the dairy sector. For example, they had coordination council. The late Dr. B.V. Rao had done a remarkable job and his daughter Ms. Anuradha Desai is continuing the work of trying to how the National Egg Coordination Council can ensure the marketing opportunities. They are very concerned with the outbreak of Avian Influenza. So wherever you have organised sector, then the cooperation becomes easy.

The problems of bio-security are most acute in the case of livestock. Bio-security problems are there in crops and fishes, etc. But, infectious diseases in livestock, according to some calculations, costs nearly a loss of Rs. 5000 crores, besides losses to our exports. There is a chapter on bio-security in terms of livestock in our report. Quarantine practices are also inadequate after the SPS regulations of the WTO.

When WTO came, people started thinking, we must also strengthen our SPS measures. Out of our total agriculture produce, 94 per cent is consumed, locally. Therefore, when we talk about quality, codex alimentarious standards should not be only in reference to the products we are exporting. Our own consumers also require good products. They require good quality milk, fish, which is free of salmonella.

We must promote a quality literacy movement. The way in which animals are reared, the hygienic conditions in which the animals are reared, the milk is produced — these are important. If you have an ambition to go global in terms of milk and milk products, we have to emphasise very much on the sanitary conditions. Fisheries is the area where there is a large scope, particularly in West Bengal. We have recommended land reforms, aquarium reform. Because so many ponds are here and there must be a policy of giving them to landless poor or others, women self help groups.

We also now have a Bio-diversity Act. These are all intended to recognise and reward the contributions of local communities. I think these Acts when they become operational, particularly the gene and bio-diversity ones, you should try to get wherever people have maintained, very good local breeds and looked after them. I think, we should reward them.

There is also need for more science and technology. There is a large amount of work being done on vaccines.

In the case of animals, those are exceedingly important and we should use modern bio-technology. In our country, we have not yet developed the method of regulatory mechanisms, which inspires public, political and professional confidence. For example, Supreme Court of India has said there should be moratorium on testing of some of the GMOs in crops, they are not very satisfied with the regulatory procedures.

A committee which I had chaired and in our report two-and half years ago, we had recommended a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority as autonomous body with two wings. One for crops, food biotechnology, and the other for veterinary and human biotechnology. In both cases, how do we have regulatory mechanism, which will enable us to take the best advantages of the enormous progress in science?

If you see nowadays, most of the Nobel prizes in Science go to these genetic engineers, those who are working on genomics. Therefore, we must take advantage of the emerging technologies and at the same time, ensure that the risk and benefits are weighed very carefully. Benefits should not be overblown and risks put under the carpet. That is why a regulatory authority, which inspires confidence, is important.

We also need more of organic farming, particularly wherever animal husbandry can be linked. For example, medicinal plants.

If we use pesticides, there could be residual problem. Therefore, the best way of growing these plants is through organic farming. There again, livestock facilitate organic farming. I have seen in Pondicherry, the Gloria farm started by the Mother of Aurbindo Ashram, Pondicherry. They have over 200 cows and hence it is possible for them to have a large amount of manure from the livestock.

For those of you who want to increase the income as livestock growers, it is possible to take a high value crop, like medicinal plants and link it with small dairy farm. It may be one person, it may be self help group, so that they also market organically produced medicinal plants, which are in great value today. Already the Spices Boards and others are promoting organic spices.

Credit and insurance have become extremely important, with a high risk, global competition. Farmers feel, NABARD should become a National Bank for Farmers — not only for agriculture, but also for farmers. NABARD has completed over 25 years of glorious service. We have recommended that there could be a review of its mandate, role and business model, so that it becomes much more oriented than now, in terms of requirement of small farmers.

We also require insurance policies, which are holistic. If you look at the people who are committing suicides in Vidharbha, the loan is not entirely for crop production but also for health, which is around 30 per cent. Because primary healthcare services are not functioning properly. The second thing is tube-well. They take money from the money-lenders to put tube-wells. It becomes a failure. The failed tube-well becomes one of the important reasons for indebtedness, which they are not able to repay.

Fortunately, we have in our country, remote-sensing techniques. When the Late Rajiv Gandhi started drinking water mission, the remote-sensing data on the availability of ground water was used. So we have lot of scientific knowledge but how we are going to use them in practice? Today, it is also possible for us to leapfrog in terms of extension by using modern technology, modern information and communication technology. We have Jamshedji Tata National Virtual Academy for rural prosperity, which provides both dynamic and demand-driven information. Dynamic in term of prices.

Now the Govt. of India has approved 100 thousand rural common service center. Our hope is a three-pronged strategy. Every block will have a village resource center, which will have satellite connection, with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It will also have tele-communication facilities. Every Panchayat, about 2,40,000, will have a knowledge center or ‘Gyan Chaupal’.

There is a e-chaupal, which started essentially for commerce, but now they have widened the scope. So in this country, today we have enormous possibility in taking whatever relevant knowledge which NDDB, NDRI, Karnal, we can take it to the remotest person by a National Grid of Gyan Chaupal linked to other techniques like FM radio or cell phone.

It is also very important that we have a social security programme for farmers and animal husbandry and fisher families. For example, along the coast nearly for four-month, sea is closed for fishing. But then the people suffer at that time. There should be some kind of monthly pension. Although, a sum of Rs. 300 is being given today, but, we have recommended for a minimum of Rs. 1500.

In conclusion, let me say about marketing, which has taken the dairy industry forward. Both poultry and dairy industry have gone up because of improved marketing and that holds the key. We did recommend in 1982 a similar system for horticulture products, fruits, vegetable and flowers — a National Horticulture Board, which would function like a NDDB. Unfortunately, it didn’t function exactly the same way. But the idea was mainly post-harvest infrastructure. Concentrate on post-harvest infrastructure, marketing, processing, value-addition. Because in all perishable commodities, that is the number one requirement.

There is a need for revisiting our pedagogic methodologies and also mainstream business management in curriculum. We don’t need to have a separate course. Above all, we need to have regional institutions for food safety and security. Food safety issues have become exceedingly important. We have also recommended that we must look at the methods of empowering small producers, giving them the power of scale.

How do we develop a system, which de-centralises production, supported by key-centralised services, which are important for feed, fodder, etc. Service cooperative are growing, group farming by self help groups are also feasible. The Finance Minister has announced a separate window of credit for SHGs, which will facilitate group farming.

We must also have a separate pricing mechanism for contract farming. Because pricing has to be looked at three levels. One is support price before the crop is sown. Then the market price is the procurement price, finally a method of providing a smart card for those people who provide grains to PDS. So the whole marketing reform is important. There is need for conservation farming in the fertile crescent of Punjab, Haryana and western UP. But one fertile crescent is not enough in this country and I hope, the next one will be West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam.

We have also recommended that the MoA should be renamed both at the Central and State Level as Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in order to make it clear that well-being of the farming families must be the bottom-line of their policies. We have also recommended that the agriculture should be in the concurrent list.

While concluding, I would like to state that the future of our country lies in the revival of the glory of farming. The glory of farming can be revived only if the glory and the happiness of the farming family can be ensured.

I hope this dairy conference will make an important contribution to take our dairy industry forward to achieve 100 million tonnes of milk. Probably, this can be a gift from the dairy industry to the nation on the 60th anniversary of our independence!

Thank you!