Our farming community is hard working. We have varied climatic and soil resources, abundant sunshine throughout the year, sizeable water resources, a long coastline and endowed with rich bio-diversity. To cap it all, we have a time-tested scientific infrastructure with a proven record of technological achievements, which we must take advantage of.

To get stakeholders involved, we must enlist the support of Panchayati Raj institutions and our agricultural universities. It is essential to actively involve farmers in the development of new technologies for it is only with their active participation that we can achieve our goal of sustainable development.

Crop diversification, both for production and consumption, is needed. We should not limit ourselves to a narrow crop basket. Widening and diversifying the current narrow food security basket to include local cereals, millets, legumes, tuber crops, vegetables and fruits could be an effective strategy to combat hunger. A well-planned diversification strategy with crops, horticulture, livestock, poultry, fishery and other on-farm and off-farm enterprises need to be pursued.

There is also a need to learn to respect and encourage the traditional wisdom of our farmers and their traditional farming practices particularly in water conservation measures. We must continue to enable village communities to conserve their bio-diversities in the field of gene banks and to preserve water, seeds and grains in village water, seed and grain banks.

(Based on the thoughts of the President on the issues expressed at various public fora)