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Editorial Credits Dr. Atanu Purkayastha Dr. Sanjeev Chopra Dr. M. Subbarayan Ms. Selina Sen Photo Credits Dr. Atanu Purkayastha Sh. Subhash C. Garg Sh. Sanjeev Gupta Dr. Sanjeev Chopra Sh. Mukesh Khullar Sh. S.K.G. Rahate Dr. Gorakh Singh Sh. Kameshwar Ojha Google Images Design & Print Macro Graphics Pvt. Ltd www.macrographics.com Ñf"k ,oa [kk| çlaLdj.k m|ksx ea=h Hkkjr ljdkj Minister of Agriculture & Food Processing Industries Government of India 'kjn iokj Sharad Pawar Preface I am happy to learn that the Department is bringing out a publication based on the tour reports submitted by its officials of their tours made during the last few years. These years were momentous in the history of Indian agriculture as the period coincided with the biggest challenges that it ever faced – an unprecedented drought in Kharif-2009 and steep increase in prices of essential commodities warranting a conference of Chief Ministers on 6th February, 2010 and subsequent constitution of Core group of Chief Ministers and Central Ministers and a Working Group on Agriculture Production. It was indeed heartening to see that the officials of the Department took these challenges headlong, plunged into action and toured extensively to assess the ground realities and ensure immediate remedial action. These efforts bore fruit as witnessed in the record agricultural production and I congratulate the DAC team for this excellent effort. This book not only captures those fleeting moments experienced by the officials of the Department during their field visits – be it the interaction with some remarkable farmers and field functionaries, or frustration at insufficient progress in the field, or those fulfilling ecstatic seconds of witnessing the results with your own eyes - but also gives an account of the great strides made by the Indian agriculture in general and the Indian farmer in particular. Sharad Pawar Hkkjr ljdkj Ñf"k ea=ky; Ñf"k ,oa lgdkfjrk foHkkx Ministry of Agriculture Department of Agriculture & Cooperation çchj dqekj clq vkbZ-,-,l- Government of India lfpo P.K. Basu I.A.S. Secretary Foreword Government has taken many initiatives in recent years for revitalization of the Agriculture sector to increase production and productivity, leading to enhancement of incomes of farmers. While the implementation and monitoring of the flagship schemes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Food Security Mission, National Horticulture Mission etc. was a major task before the Department, the unprecedented drought in 2009 and price rise in food items, notably in pulses and oilseeds and announcement of new schemes in the budget 2010–11 like Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India and organising 60,000 pulses & oilseeds villages in rainfed areas, posed additional challenges. It is in this backdrop that it was felt that close interaction with the states, research institutions of ICAR/SAUs, KVKs, field functionaries/extension workers and more importantly the farmers, is necessary to realize the desired outcomes. We always believed that synergy between the line departments, research institutions and farmers is important. I am proud to state that my officers rose to the occasion and travelled to the nook and corner of the country to gain firsthand knowledge about the implementation of schemes, problems faced by the state officials and farmers and came out with appropriate swift action. The results are there for everyone to see - we achieved record production in foodgrains, pulses, oilseeds and cotton during 2010–11 !! The book captures those vignettes as witnessed by the touring officials and this is a humble effort to record those moments for the posterity. P.K. Basu Introduction The volume in your hands: ‘Vignettes of Indian Agriculture’ is not a technical manual on agriculture. It is not a detailed statistical account of a commodity, or group of commodities. It is not a review of the institutions engaged in agricultural research in the country. It is not a policy document with clear ‘guidelines’ on how to address issues in Indian agriculture. It does not follow a systematic pattern, and often meanders along the thought patterns of its individual authors. It is not written for an academic audience, and is not peer reviewed. Yet, it is perhaps more useful for both the lay reader, and the policy mandarin than any of the ‘manuals/policy documents’ mentioned above. The document captures ‘glimpses’ of agriculture across the length and breadth of the country – from the cymbidiums in Sikkim to tapioca in Kerala, mushrooms in Punjab to paddy in West Bengal, protected cultivation in Dehradun to RKVY interventions in Gujarat and Rajasthan. What is a ‘vignette’? A ‘vignette’ is a brief evocative description, account or episode. By its very nature, it is impressionistic, and its value is in the recall. Yet, it conveys through its episodic and anecdotal reference, a reality which cannot be captured in a scholarly work, or Proforma based inspection report. Each individual has his/her own way of capturing these episodes: some chose to intervene in it, others ‘absorb’ it for later reflection. Even as the perspectives vary, they help the ‘reader’ in assimilating the myriad diversity of Indian agriculture which officers of the Department of Agriculture have observed in their tour notes, or grassroots diaries over the last few years. The opening tour ‘notes’ are from the intrepid traveller Dr. Gorakh Singh, India’s Horticulture Commissioner who has logged more kilometres, and gathered more Flying returns than any other contributor. In his own inimitable style, Dr. Singh records his tours to Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Meghalaya where he interacted with farmers, scientists, horticulture officials, directors, secretaries and ministers of horticulture. Always one to call a ‘spade a spade’, he extends positive strokes, as well as his displeasure when the occasion so warrants. His favourite themes : canopy management, pruning strategy, planting material, nursery accreditation, rejuvenation vii vignettes OF INDIAN Agriculture of senile orchards, protected cultivation, High Density plantation are the recurrent themes. Dr. Singh’s reputation and expertise on guava, mango, litchi, banana, citrus and vegetable cultivation is legion, and he holds forth on these during his ‘lecture demonstrations’. The next set of ‘vignettes’ are penned by Joint Secretary Subhash C. Garg, who is currently heading the RKVY and Trade divisions at the DAC. His Bangalore tour takes him to the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research which is working on all major fruits of the country, but with a special focus on mango, sapota and papaya. ICAR was also establishing a specialized research centre on grapes and pomegranates at the IIHR. The institute has also developed eighty five varieties across twenty five vegetables, including hybrids for tomato, chillies, watermelon, brinjal and onion. The signature hybrid is ‘Arka Manik’ - a watermelon variety which is now spread over 2 lakh hectares, and growing. Interventions in horticulture make a real improvement in the incomes of farmers, especially if they are grown in peri-urban areas, where marketing is not a real issue. However, he also notes that even though Karnataka has become a global sourcing hub for gherkins, the institute had not initiated any research on gherkins. Garg notes with satisfaction the success of the Institute in managing its IPRs. The Technology Management unit of the IIHR had been able to generate an annual income of nearly two crores in the current year, and this could be an exemplar for other ICAR institutions. His next trip takes him to Kerala, where he visits the central Tuber Crops Research Institute, which deals with crops which are not very well known in the food lexicon, especially in North India. The mandate crop is cassava, which is more popularly known as ‘tapioca’ in South; but the institute also works on sweet potato, yams, taro (aravi), arrow root etc. Of these, cassava is most important, especially as it is an excellent source of starch, and has found commercial applications as well. Tamil Nadu has over a hundred factories which use cassava as the basic raw material for chips, sago, sabu dana, thickeners and commercial starch. In Africa and the Caribbean islands, it is a principal cereal crop, and is an important part of the daily diet of many people. The major contribution of this Centre has been to reduce the cropping period from 12 months to six-eight months, besides higher productivity. This augurs well for the farmers, whose only request is that sufficient quantities of good quality planting material is provided to them, a challenge which the Institute has to gear up to. Going through Garg’s final report on his tour to Chhattisgarh, one can only amaze at his unbounded energies and enthusiasm of visiting more than thirty villages and other places in this gruelling tour; and his keen eye for finer details even on such technical issues, usually left alone to engineers, like discharge in shallow tube wells, design and layout of minor irrigation tanks and veterinary dispensaries. In this report he describes viii Introduction his moments of fulfilment - every officer’s dream - in a village in Bastar inhabited by poor and backward tribal people where he found their small huts overflowing with maize and leaving no place to even sleep! Sanjeev ‘IT’ Gupta is the DAC’s nodal point for IT and extension. Passionate as he is about IT, his Rajasthan tour notes reflect his ‘systems’ approach, and his quest to streamline data entry at the grassroots, to installation of hardware at the Block headquarters, development of applications at the local level, and the establishment of a robust Data Centre at the state. There is a reference to IT on each page of his report, but that does not take away from the fact that he has also looked at micro nutrients, water management, soil testing and selection of beneficiaries as well.

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