Global Inflationary trends in farm produce will not die down easily and are likely to continue. The main reasons for it were the extreme weather conditions, the huge increase in population, diversion of food crops to fuel crops, decrease of arable land due to decrease of salinity, overuse of fertilizers and urbanization. All this has lead to decrease in productivity and also lead to the poorest of the poor increasing dramatically. There is huge surge in energy demand by India and lots of farming land and crops are getting diverted to fuel crops, leading to shortage of available food grains.

This was disclosed today by Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology at the inauguration of an important  one day  National Conference on ‘Agri and food Biotechnology for Food, Feed and Farmers Security “held at the PHD Chamber today in New Delhi. .

“Policy makers need to look at holistic approach to increase productivity which should also be sustainable and eco friendly. The green revolution, which is happening now, should become “Evergreen revolution” which is only possible by PPP model and sharing of technogies between research institutes and farmers. We should have clusters of industrial institutes and industry together where cross fertilization of ideas can be better and more effective and flow of ideas from lab to field much faster.” added Kapil Sibal . 

Mr. Kapil Sibal, , said that crop conversion for energy purposes should be justified in terms of food security, energy capture of the product, sustainability and its impact on the ecology. Viewed against these parameters, he said that there was no justification for diversion of corn for energy purposes, as was done in a large scale, in the US. Only 6 percent of the energy for transportation needs can be met from this source.

Mentioning that the Government of India was contemplating proactive schemes for creating food and energy security in the country, Mr. Sibal mentioned that crops like rapeseed, Soya, sugarcane etc were ideally suited for diverting for generation of energy.. In this regard, he mentioned about the Rs.100 crore Godavari pilot project for creating energy from baggasse. Significantly, the bye products of these processes have considerable value in the market to make their use profitable and sustainable.

Dr L K Malhotra, President of PHD Chamber said, “Investment climate should become conducive in India to make it a base for affordable and acceptable technology, which we should integrate with the industry. The Government should also communicate well and effectively to the public about the policy frameworks which can take care of enormous opposition of the public".

Others who spoke at the meeting included Mr Ajay Bector, Chairman, Agribusiness, PHD Chamber, Mr Raj Ketkar, Jt Mg Director, Mahyco Monsanto Biotech, Dr CD Mayee, Chairman, ASRB, Mrs Manju Sharma, former Secretary, DBT and  Dr Nawab Ali, Deputy Director General, ICAR.