The Centre on Thursday pulled up the states for the deacceleration of agriculture growth rate and low levels of productivity.Agriculture secretary Radha Singh at the National conference on agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2005 said that the states and Indian Council for Agriculture Research needed to show more interest in agriculture.‘‘ICAR should get its act together,’’ she said and also urged the states to take a more proactive approach. ‘‘It (agriculture) is a state subject. What the government of India is doing will complement your efforts not supplement. You should feel excited,’’ Singh told agriculture secretaries and commissioners from the states and Union Territories.Singh said that the states needed to take more interest in a variety of areas from ensuring that seeds and hybrids reached the farmers, amending the APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee) Act, ensuring technology reached farmers and taking more interest in implementing schemes that were started by the Centre.The secretary pointed out that states were falling behind in all these areas and this was affecting the growth of agriculture. On the seed Village Scheme, she said it was weak and that states should take advantage of the scheme.On the APMC Act, Singh said only six states had reformed the act. ‘‘As we have been emphasising for the past two years the amendment to APMC Act is key to the marketing reform process. The Act is restrictive and discourages competition, and obstructs remunerative prices to be given to farmers,’’ she said. ‘‘Everyone is saying that we are here for farmers but when it comes to reform nothing happens.’’ The secretary told a gathering of state and Union territories representatives that the latest NSSO report contained disclosures that 60 per cent of farmers had no access to technology. The agriculture ministry is now coming up with the countrywide launch of Mission 4 to raise the agriculture growth rate by 4 per cent. This involves employing a strategy that analyses different climactic zones and commodities and matches it depending on the specific constraints in soil, land and water. She recommended the creation of a Task Force comprising of the Vice Chancellor of State Agricultural Universities, State Agricultural Secretary, Director of Agricultural and District Agricultural Officers. Such a group could plan interventions in selected areas.
