Embassy of India

The Patron of the Midlands Show Society and Hon’ble Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Mr. E.D Mnangagwa;

The  Minister of State for Midlands Province, J.M.K Machaya;

Hon’ble  Cabinet Ministers;

Former Resident Minister for Midlands Province, Dr Msipa;

Honourable Senators and members of the National Assembly;

The Commissioner of City of Gweru, T Mhangami and other Commissioners from neighbouring cities;

The President of the Midlands Show Society, Mr P Muringani;

The Chairman of the Midlands Show Society, Mr A K Mupakurirwa;

The Midlands Show Society Executive Committee Members.

Service Chiefs and Heads of Government Departments;

Representatives of other Show Societies;

Traditional Chiefs;

Exhibitors;

Distinguished Guests

I feel profoundly honoured and humbled to be invited to address at such a remarkable occasion marking the 91st Edition of the Midlands Agricultural Show.  I am happy to know that the Midlands Show is one of the most important shows and has earned such a good reputation over the years. This has been confirmed as we were taking round of the stalls set up by the entrepreneurs showcasing their products and best practices. These agencies have contributed hugely to the prosperity and development of Zimbabwe and I would like to congratulate them.   In this context, I would like to avail this rare privilege to share with you all India’s experience in the fields of increased agricultural production, mechanization, irrigation and research and development.  

Distinguished guests,

Agriculture in India is the principal source of livelihood for more than 55 per cent of the population of the country. It provides the bulk of wage goods required by non-agriculture sectors and most of the raw materials for the industrial sector. The combined efforts of Central Government, Provincial Governments and the farming community succeeded in achieving record production of 265.04 million tonnes of food grains during 2013-14. In 2014-15, despite erratic and deficient monsoon, the production of food grains, as per the fourth Advance Estimates, were 252.68 million tonnes. This production was achieved through effective transfer of latest crop production technologies to farmers under various crop development schemes. Indian agriculture is backed by remunerative prices for various crops through Minimum Support Prices (MSP) scheme.

Although the farm productivity is still low as compared to other developed countries, much improvements have been made due to various major policies and programmes and activities formulated by the government from time to time which are aimed at enhancing agricultural production and productivity through optimum utilization of natural resources of land, water, soil, etc. Some of the key schemes implemented by the government of India are:

a) National Food Security Mission (NFSM): The Mission was launched in 2007- 08 to increase the production of rice, wheat and pulses by 10,8 and 2 million tonnes, respectively by the end of 11th Plan ( 2007-08) through area expansion and productivity enhancement; restoring soil fertility and productivity; creating employment opportunities; and enhancing farm level economy. The Mission is being continued during 12th Five Year Plan (2012-13-2017-18) with new target of additional production of 25 million tonnes of foodgrains comprising 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of pulses and 3 million tonnes of coarse cereals by the end of the 12th Plan. The major interventions/activities covered under NFSM include cluster demonstrations of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals, distribution of improved varieties/hybrid seeds, need based plant and soil management, farm mechanization, resource conservation techniques/energy management, efficient water/application tools, cropping system based trainings and local initiatives, etc.  

b) National Food Security Mission-Commercial Crops : The Government of India has approved crop development programme on cotton, jute and sugarcane for enhancing productivity under National Food Security Mission-Commercial Crops (NFSM-CC) from 2014-15. Under this scheme, the thrust is on transfer of technology through frontline demonstrations and trainings.  

c) Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) : India has a wide and varied horticulture base, which includes fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, mushrooms, spices and aromatic plants, flowers and foliage and plantation crops like coconut,  cashew nut, cocoa and bamboo. Horticulture sector has been an engine of growth for rural economy while providing food and nutritional security to the people. Horticulture production touched the level of 277 million tonnes in 2013-14, which increased to 283 million tonnes as per second Advance Estimate in 2014-15.

d) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA): as a programmatic intervention made operational from the year 2014-15 aims at making agriculture more productive, sustainable and remunerative and climate resilient by promoting location specific integrated/composite farming systems; soil and moisture conservation measures; comprehensive soil health management; efficient water management practices and mainstreaming rainfed technologies.

e) National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology: The aim of this scheme is to restructure and strengthen agricultural extension to enable delivery of appropriate technology and improved agronomic practices to the farmers and  consists of four sub-missions namely : (i) On agriculture extension; (ii) Seed and planting material; (iii) Agriculture mechanization; and (iv) Plant protection and plant quarantine.

f) Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing: Its basic objective is to provide farmers with access to more markets with adequate modern infrastructure to enable them to realize better prices on the one hand and to provide quality products to consumers at stable and affordable prices on the other.

g) Price Stabilization Fund for Cereals and Vegetables: The Government has approved the Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) as a Central Sector Scheme, with a corpus of $75 million, to advance interest free loans to states and central/ state agencies to support their working capital and other expenses on procurement interventions for perishable agri-horticultural commodities when prices crash and farmers need to be protected. Alternatively, when prices are anticipated to increase substantially, then procurement of these commodities could be undertaken from farm gate/mandi to reduce the cost of intermediation and make them available at a cheaper price to the consumers.

Distinguished guests,

Credit flow to farmers is one of the key factors to encourage farming community. In this regards, several Initiative have been undertaken by government of India for increasing flow of credit. Some of the measures are worth mentioning:-

Interest subvention scheme: Government of India had announced an Interest Subvention Scheme in 2006- 07 to enable banks to provide short term credit to agriculture (crop loan) upto 0.3 million at 7 per cent rate of interest to farmers. Further, to incentivize prompt repayment, an additional interest subvention of 1 per cent to those farmers who repay their short term crop loans promptly and on or before the due date was also announced. This interest subvention was subsequently raised to 2 per cent in 2010-11 and 3 per cent in 2011-12. This is being extended thereafter from year to year continued during 2015-16. Thus, farmers, who promptly repay their crop loans are extended loans at an effective interest rate of 4%.

Extension of interest subvention scheme to post harvest loans: In order to discourage distress sale by farmers and to encourage them to store their produce in warehouses against warehouse receipts, the benefit of interest subvention scheme has been extended to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Card for a further period of upto six months post-harvest at the same rate as available to crop loan against negotiable warehouse receipt for keeping their produce in warehouses.

Interest subvention in the event of natural calamity: The Standing Guidelines of Reserve Bank of India restrict short term crop loans upon declaration of natural calamity. Such restricting of crop loans converts them into term loans. Resultantly, a crop loan continues at concessional rate of interest viz., 7 per cent till completion of one year. Thereafter, the interest at normal rate is charged.

Kisan (Farmers) Credit Card Scheme: In order to ensure that all eligible farmers are provided with hassle free and timely credit for their agricultural operation, Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme was introduced in 1998-99. Marginal farmers, share croppers, oral lessee and tenant farmers are eligible to be covered under the scheme. The main objectives of the scheme are to meet the short term credit requirements for cultivation of crops, post harvest expenses, produce marketing loan, consumption requirements of farmer household, working capital for maintenance of farm assets and activities allied to agriculture like dairy animals and inland fishery.

Short-Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure: The Government has implemented a package for revival of short-term rural cooperative credit structure in the country. The revival package was aimed at reviving/ strengthening the Short-Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure (CCS) and makes it a well-managed and vibrant medium to serve the credit needs of rural India, especially the small and marginal farmers.                         

Distinguished guests.

Agriculture research and education in India is spearheaded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India. This apex body is mandated for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture and allied activities. It has the largest network of agricultural research and education in the world with 109 institutes, 78 all India coordinated projects/networks, 642 Agricultural Science Centres, 71 state agricultural/ veterinary/horticultural/fishery universities and four general universities with agricultural faculty spread across the country.

The ICAR has made concerted efforts to minimize the adverse effects of delayed monsoon. It formulated specific contingency plans for 580 districts in 23 states and took proactive action to encounter drought like situation due to delay in the onset of monsoon. Farmers were advised on alternate crops that need less water and can tolerate longer intervening spells of no rains. Adequate stocks of seeds of alternate crops were arranged. Farmers were advised to take up in situ moisture conservation measures in view of proven benefits under low rainfall situations. Special teams including scientists visited the cyclone affected areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to salvage the damage caused by cyclone Hudhud and floods in the country.

Taking a step towards 21st century agriculture, the Council has developed land resource inventories (1:10000 scale) for 32 blocks, land resource atlas of 32 districts (1:50,000), soil maps of 82 districts (1:50000), soil resource maps for 267 watersheds (1:4000/1:10000) and harmonized, characterized and quantified 120 m ha of degraded land. The Government has emphasized on soil health for better crop productivity, therefore the Council has developed i) user friendly soil testing kits, ii) soil testing labs, iii) practices for balanced use of fertilizers and iv) promoted use of organic manure and rain water harvesting.

The Council strived to develop new crop varieties having specific traits that improve yield and nutritional quality along with tolerance/resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses besides matching crop production and protection technologies for target agro-ecologies. One hundred fifty-five new improved varieties/hybrids of field crops were released in varied agro-climatic regions.

The Council took initiatives to assess harvest and post-harvest losses for 45 crops. The engineering and technological interventions in this context are important to reduce the losses. Lot of emphasis is being laid on food safety. Around 100 food testing laboratories have come up in private and public sector in the country and provide testing of food products for chemical and microbiological testing. Many of these laboratories are equipped to test the food products for pesticide residues, toxins and heavy metals, etc.

The Council is also popularizing the floating and vertical farming in horticulture to enhance the productivity with lower cost. The council is doing pioneering efforts for breeding of the precious fish of eastern India, Hilsa, towards its aquaculture.

The Council is promoting small smart machines in agriculture in form of sensors and cameras in fields and farm equipment for water levels in irrigation and soil, early detection of pests, emission sensors, tagging livestock, natural resources and trucks and shipping containers and market and banking, etc. It is trying to take Indian agriculture to next level by providing IT environment for agri-system management. It has taken number of steps towards digitization of agricultural databases and creation of e-resources. It is also promoting PPP model of agri-advisories though m-KRISHI.

Distinguished guests,  

Agricultural mechanization plays a complementary role in increasing production, productivity and profitability in agriculture by achieving timeliness in farm operations, bringing precision in metering and placement of inputs thereby reducing input losses and unit cost of production. The efficiency of mechanization can be judged from the fact that modern plough is about 200 to 300% more efficient than indigenous plough, efficient machinery helps in increasing productivity by about 30% besides, enabling the farmers to raise a second crop or multi crop making the Indian agriculture attractive and a way of life by becoming commercial instead of subsistence.  Large number of manual, animal drawn, self-propelled, power tiller and tractor operated equipment and machinery have been developed and are commercially available for carrying out different farm operations in major crops. The present trend is towards use of high capacity and energy efficient machinery such as laser guided land leveler, rotavator, planters, zero-till drill, self-propelled rice transplanter, threshers (multi-crop and paddy) and combine harvesters on custom hiring.

Earlier, it was considered that mechanization creates unemployment. The myth has been broken and it has been observed that, agricultural mechanization besides increasing production and productivity also generates income and employment opportunities. Several studies conducted in different parts of India have shown that mechanization has helped in increasing production, productivity, generation of income and employment. Punjab, a highly mechanized province in India, employs 0.7 million laborers from adjoining states, out of which 3.5k are employed on a regular basis and remaining during the main cropping season. 

Distinguished guests,

Zimbabwe and India are largely agriculture dependent countries. India has gone through difficult times but has managed to now become a self sufficient country in food grains. Zimbabwe and India can learn from each other in the areas of policy formulation to increase production and productivity, credit flow mechanism, research and education and mechanization. India’s huge requirements of pulses and availability of land in Zimbabwe for production of variety of food items can find complementarity in our business relations. And I am committed during my tenure in your beautiful country to working towards this end.

Distinguished guests,

This morning I had the opportunity to visit the stalls set up by entrepreneurs. I can not resist the temptation to take advantage of this platform and inform you that there is a huge potential for cooperation in SME sector.

The SME sector in India demonstrates remarkable resilience in the face of trialing global and domestic economic circumstances. The sector has sustained an annual growth rate of over 10% for the past few years. With its agility and dynamism, the sector has shown admirable innovativeness and adaptability to survive economic shocks, even of the gravest nature. The significance of SMEs is attributable to their caliber for employment generation, low capital and technology requirement, promotion of industrial development in rural areas, use of traditional or inherited skill, use of local resources, mobilization of resources and exportability of products. According to the estimates of the Ministry of SME, Government of India, the sector generates around 100 million jobs through over 46 million units situated throughout the geographical expanse of the country. With 38% contribution to the nation’s GDP and 40% and 45% share of the overall exports and manufacturing output, respectively, it is easy to comprehend the role they play in social and economic restructuring of India. Besides the wide range of services provided by the sector, the sector is engaged in the manufacturing of over 6,000 products ranging from traditional to hi-tech items.

The Indian SME sector provides maximum opportunities for both self-employment and wage-employment outside the agricultural sector and contributes in building an inclusive and sustainable society in innumerable ways through creation of non-farm livelihood at low cost, balanced regional development, gender and social balance, environmentally sustainable development, etc.

You will be interested to know that SME Tool Rooms have been credited to provide at least ten components that were used in India’s Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission probe), the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) most ambitious mission till date, which is the country’s first inter-planetary space mission. The sector has also contributed vital inputs for other space satellites such as the Chandrayan, India’s second moon mission, set to be launched in 2016-17, will have a soft land over a wheeled robotic vehicle to explore the landing area. India seeks to launch other ambitious projects like a global sea traffic monitoring system and an earth observation satellite, in cooperation with the EU. The projects envision significant contributions and convergent opportunities from the Indian SME sector.

I am happy to inform that we are closely working with Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of SME and Cooperative Development of the Government of Zimbabwe to expand cooperation in the above areas between the two countries.

Thank you

Photographs