GRASSROOTS / National Agro Foundation paves way for second Green Revolution

Joseph Vackayil

Madhavan, an electronics engineer now excelling in agriculture, will soon harvest hybrid corn in his one-acre farm in Karumbakkam village in Chengleput district, Tamil Nadu. He expects to gather at least two tonnes of bright, robust, pest-free corn. Last year, the yield was only around 700 kg and he lost Rs 1,000. This year, Madhavan expects a minimum profit of Rs 3,000.

This dramatic 250 per cent jump in production and quantum leap in profit is thanks to the initiative and guidance of the National Agro Foundation (NAF) founded by the late C Subramaniam, one of the founding fathers of India’s Green Revolution. Bharat Ratna Subramaniam was very happy that he played a key role in transforming India to a 40-million tonne food surplus country. But what made him sad was that the surplus was a surplus of hunger.

Last year, when he was ailing and was barely able to speak, Mr Subramaniam spoke out for the emancipation of poor farmers and energisation of the rural sector. He visualised a situation in which the family earnings rose to Rs 50,000 by increased productivity and better prices in spite of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The methodology he advocated was to assist the marginal farmer in improving productivity through soil fertility, hybrid seeds, scientific irrigation systems and harvesting and post-harvest operations. And the NAF was set up to make the realisation of this vision a reality. NAF, the new, technology-driven promise for Indian villages, is intended to:
* Provide information and know-how to Indian farmers on new technologies, on all issues related to agriculture, including crop diseases, pesticides, drip irrigation, productivity, costs and returns etc.
* Offer the latest state-of-the-art soil testing facilities.
* Arrange training facilities to develop farm managers; also training for all other layers—skilled workers, tractor operators, maintenance workers etc.
* Create a pool of experts—part-time/full-time—to help farmers resolve specific problems.
* Advise on the setting up of a marketing organisation, with cold storage facilities, for instant purchases of products at sustainable prices, with modern packaging facilities and supermarket outlets, to make it a model marketing organisation, known for its quality, customer service and competitive prices.

In brief, the Foundation aims to be one of the leading agricultural set-ups in the country in providing services to farmers to improve the quality of rural life and catalyse national economic development. The basic philosophy of this second Green Revolution is enriching the nutrient level of the soil by knowing it through detailed and computerised testing. So far, the focus had been only on estimating the three main constituents of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) in the soil. The role and need of other micro-nutrients like gypsum, magnesium, iron, zinc, boron, calcium, sulphur, copper, organic carbon etc., were being ignored.

Mr Subramaniam took advice from a US-based Indian agriculture scientist, C Lakshmanan, on the importance of testing the soil for crop-specific micro-nutrients. Dr Lakshmanan continues to be advisor to NAF.

In Madhavan’s case, the soil in his farm was tested at the state-of-the-art NAF laboratory with financial support from the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (Tifac). Scientific soil and water management helped the growth of corn in his model farm. The crop could withstand pest attacks as the plants had inherent strength from the additional nutrients that they could take from the enriched soil.

Bharat Ratna A P J Abdul Kalam, scientific advisor to the Union government, after visiting the ready-to-harvest corn field on June 7, described Madhavan’s achievement as the first step in the realisation of C Subramaniam’s vision of ushering in of the second Green Revolution.

Mr Subramaniam’s vision envisages a three-pronged approach for energisation of the rural sector. These are: developing demonstration farms, farmers’ training centres and cattle development centres. NAF is developing a new generation of farmers like Madhavan who are trained in land preparation, seedling production, irrigation, fertilising methods, pest monitoring, harvesting, storage and marketing.

According to M K Raju, chairman of NAF’s trust board, the Foundation has selected two clusters of villages, 25 at Chunampet and 20 at Gummidipoondi as a pilot project for its cattle development programme. The plan is to upgrade the quality of cattle and increase the daily milk yield from 15,000 litres to one lakh litres. “With mini dairy and chillers, the project will be self-sufficient and will ensure better milk prices to farmers,” he says.

NAF has targeted to test 1,500 soil samples this year and set up 20 demonstration farms to cover multiple crops. In collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, NAF is also launching a computerised Tamil literacy programme also these chosen clusters. With the elimination of 30 per cent wastage in storage and distribution, improvement in per hectare yields of crops, pulses and vegetables, it is expected that a farmer will be in a position to reduce cost of production substantially and improve his margins. NAF’s first farmers’ training centre is to come up on a 15-acre plot donated by C Ramakrishna, a member of the NAF governing board, at Chunampet village.