The Green Revolution was criticised by social activists on the ground that the high-yield technology involving the use of mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides is environmentally harmful.
The air pollution in Delhi has become a matter of public health concern nationally and internationally.
All kinds of excuses have been given by governments for not implementing this recommendation like food price inflation. But the question is, do the farmers of this country, who constitute nearly half of the working population, also not need to eat?
After the Green Revolution, I came up with the concept of the Evergreen Revolution. In this we will see increase in farm productivity but without ecological harm.
The more powerful a technology greater care should be used to benefit fro it. India should not be left behind the world. From the past revolution of nuclear technology we saw how it could destruct and at the same time were useful for medical science.
In Punjab wheat production it is a 'gamble of temperature' unlike other parts of the country where there is a 'gamble of rainfall'.
Where there is a challenge there has to be a response.
I was chairman of the steering committee for agriculture when we set up the target of 4% growth rate. I had written that if you want to achieve 4% growth rate in agriculture, you should have 8% growth in animal husbandry and fisheries and 8% in horticulture.
When politicians talk of loan waiver, they are accepting that agriculture is not economically viable. They are giving a wrong signal that farming is not economically viable. It's true. That's where the loan waiver comes in.
The purpose of developing a methodology for what they call genetic control over seed, is mainly to ensure that F1 hybrids are pure and that every year you have to buy the seed.
In any case, if I grow hybrid maize or hybrid pearl mallet or any hybrid, I have to sow fresh seed every year. I cannot keep the seed of the same plant. If I keep the seed of the same plant, yield will be much less and there will be a wide variation in the field, like maturity period, quality and so on.
You can classify farmers into two major groups. One who saves seeds for the next crop and the other who purchases seeds from the market. Most of the commercial farmers like the US farmers are people who purchase seeds.
Rain harvesting should be made mandatory and should be made more systematic to ensure that every drop of rain is preserved.
In the current scenario of climate change, predictions of extreme weather events are becoming difficult.
The rain-cum-solar energy centre functioning in Chennai is a source of credible public information on rainwater harvesting and solar energy use. Such centres need to be replicated in all our cities, towns and block headquarters.
Famines were frequent in colonial India and some estimates indicate that 30 to 40 million died out of starvation in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Bengal during the later half of the 19th century.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Bengal Famine, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill which will be the world's largest social protection measure against hunger.
The smaller the farm, the greater is the need for marketable surplus, so that the family will have cash income to meet their needs.
In spite of the dominant role played by women in both farming, they are denied credit as they lack land titles. Only a small percentage of Kisan Credit Cards goes to them.
Denying a child even at birth an opportunity for the full expression of its innate genetic potential for physical and mental development is the cruellest form of inequity.
