'Agriculture is not a culture, but an industry'

Finally someone admitted as much: "Most of the issues (relating to agriculture) are known, solutions are in sight...what is required is determination and commitment to implement appropriate interventions,'' said Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana at a session on 'Actions for Modernizing India's Agriculture Sector,' held in New Delhi at India Economic Summit 2010 by the World Economic Forum.

Indian agriculture is still mired under self-defeating regulations, was the common refrain: "Agriculture is not a culture, but an industry and we want to work with companies, but are they willing to sit with us and discuss our issues and concerns?'' asked P. Chengal Reddy, Secretary General, Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations.

In an interesting assertion of biotechnological intervention in the farm space, Jerry Steiner, Executive Vice-President, Monsanto Company, USA, said "Biotechnology and modified seeds have been around for 15 years and are, in fact, approved by many governments around the world without a single known case of a health hazard. Public confidence in these measures, in India, will come once the government gives it the go-ahead and adopts them,'' he said.

Clearing the air on farmer hesitation towards genetically modified seeds and the biotechnological involvement on farm land, Reddy said that there was erroneous view among segments of policy makers and industry that farmers feared the inclusion of advanced technology and science on the farm land. "We are not against any new seed or biotechnological breakthrough coming into farm space, we want it and are willing to try anything that will aid farmer gain and productivity,'' he said.

There was consensus among most participants that agriculture, which is the mainstay of Indian economy and accounts for the livelihood of 60 per cent of its population, is light years away from being seen as an engine of economic growth: "Our research for over 25 years has proved conclusively that even a 2 per cent growth in agriculture sector leads to a phenomenal growth in economy - much more than the growth in any other sector, yet we seem to still depend on subsidies that barely reach the poor farmers,'' said Ashok Gulati, Director, Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, India.

The roadmap suggested by the experts included a need competitive market place. Raj Jain, President & CEO, Wal-Mart India agreed on participation and involvement with the farm sector. However, there were still policy hurdles that needed to be sorted out. "There is a big price-value gap between what is produced and at what cost it reaches the consumer. There are many cases where companies are not allowed to talk to farmers and retail sector faces many restrictions,'' he said.