|
Union
Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar, launched a
6-year ambitious agricultural research programme, National
Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), which focuses on
innovations in agricultural technology in New Delhi on
Wednesday, the 26th of July, 2006. Rs. 1170
crore project, with the assistance of World Bank, would
facilitate an accelerated and sustainable transformation
of the Indian agriculture so that it can support poverty
alleviation and income generation. This would be achieved
through collaborative development and application of
agricultural innovations by the public organizations in
partnership with farmers’ groups, the private sector and
other stakeholders. Shri Pawar called NAIP as a
prestigious externally funded project with out-of-the box
ideas and said that it would help in making Indian
agriculture a profitable venture.
The Agriculture Minister underlined the fact that NAIP
not only utilizes the rich experiences of the past and the
present research efforts but also explores new innovations
in doing the business differently. “ The project will be
implemented in consortium mode, with competitive funding.
Some of the other innovative approaches include research
on production to consumption system, focus on
disadvantaged districts, strengthening basic and strategic
research and enhancing institutional skills in business
development and IPR management”, he said.
Dr. Montek
Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
termed NAIP as a vehicle of change for implementing new
strategy of agricultural development and said that the
project addressed the concerns of science for commerce
through value chains, science for livelihood improvement
particularly in disadvantaged areas and science for
excellence in science by strengthening basic and strategic
research in frontier of agricultural sciences. Dr.
Ahluwalia said the project would help in not only doubling
agricultural production but also in achieving more
inclusive growth during XI Plan. He appreciated ICAR’s
role in carrying out agricultural research in the country
and said, “I am glad that ICAR is adopting innovative
approaches in its research activities to transform
country’s agriculture”.
Director General of ICAR Dr. Mangala Rai said that the
Council is fully geared to implement the project in terms
of needed preparations. He informed that the just
concluded National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP)
had provided more than 300 proven technologies and said
that NAIP, which would provide continuum in the direction
of sustainable transformation of country’s agriculture.
The Project would focus on four components which aim at
ICAR as the catalyzing agent for the management of change
in the Indian National Agricultural Research System;
Research on Production to Consumption Systems; Research on
Sustainable Rural Livelihood Security; and Basic and
Strategic Research in Frontier Areas of Agricultural
Sciences. The total budget of NAIP is US $ 250 million:
the World Bank will fund US $ 200 million as credit
(mostly interest free and a part with negligible interest)
and US $ 50 million by the Government of India.
India’s agricultural sector is composed of a large number
of small individual entrepreneurs. Farmers are becoming
increasingly dependent on other entrepreneurs for
services, inputs, implements, marketing and processing.
The
capacity of these large numbers of entities to adjust to
the rapid changes in the institutional, economic and
political environments, and inter-collaborations is highly
crucial for the success of agricultural development.
Capacity building and strengthening of partnerships will
be major elements in all the Components of the NAIP.
Capacity building applies to individual farmers, farmers’
groups/ organizations, and agrarian institutions and
businesses, which support them. Partnerships refer to
collaborations among public sector institutions, farmers’
organizations, self-help groups, NGOs and the private
sector.
The recently concluded National Agricultural Technology
Project (NATP) led by the ICAR, was aimed to implement the
shared understanding of the Government of India and the
World Bank on technology-led-pro-poor growth, and it
facilitated the public sector reform process for
accelerating the flow of agricultural technologies.
A
key lesson from the NATP is that deliberate investments in
partnership building and shared governance are required to
speed up technology adaptation and dissemination. |
