The Union Agriculture Ministry is batting for contract farming and wants those involved in farming to repeat the success witnessed by the poultry sector in agriculture too.

During 1993 and 2012, foodgrain production increased by 40 per cent, whereas production of eggs saw a 166 per cent growth.

Contract farming played a major role in improving productivity as well as total production in the poultry sector. “I feel that the same shall hold true for agriculture too,” Union Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar said.

Biennial meet

About 500 delegates from 33 countries attended the four-day biennial conference of World Agricultural Forum (WAF).

Addressing the inaugural conference here on Tuesday, he said biotechnology would play a major role in improving productivity. The contentious issue required a health scientific debate, he said.

“We need a robust regulatory system with a scientifically established mechanism for evaluation of genetically modified crops. The scientific community and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research must contribute to the public discourse and provide clarity on this sensitive issue,” he said.

Climate change could cause a loss of yield of up to nine per cent in the medium-term (from 2010-2039) if the impact was not mitigated.

Delivering the keynote on the challenge of feeding 10 billion people, Bayer Crop Sciences Chief Executive Liam Condon said that there was a need to turn farmers into ‘agripreneurs’, running profitable and sustainable businesses.

“Smallholders, who account for 50 per cent of the world’s food production, take a key role in the challenge of feeding around 10 billion people by 2050. But the yields of small farms today remain well below potential due to the lack of appropriate seeds, inputs, machinery, know-how, financing, infrastructure and trading networks,” he saidd.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

(This article was published on November 5, 2013)