India is planning to adopt the Chinese model of hybrid rice production, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Saturday. A Central team led by minister of state for agriculture K.V. Thomas visited China recently, collected information and submitted a report to him with his suggestions on the development of the Chinese hybrid rice.
The minister was speaking to mediapersons at the end of a two-day workshop on “Bringing Green Revolution To Eastern India.”
The programme was organised by the agriculture department of the West Bengal government and department of agriculture and cooperation at the Centre.
Mr Pawar said, “In today’s meeting, director (Asia) of International Food Policy Research, New Delhi, Ashok Gulati gave a presentation on the Chinese success story on hybrid rice. In our country, the productivity of rice per hectare is 3.3 tonnes against China’s 6.6 tonnes.”
Mr Pawar said that India should emulate the Chinese model. Noting that the quality of the Chinese hybrid rice was high, he pointed out, “We will have to see that high quality seed is also available to our farmers. The government has to provide some kind of support to farmers so that they can buy them at reasonable rates. We are encouraging seed companies to produce seeds on the PPP model.”
Mr Pawar informed that a Central-level task force would be set up for “aggressive” promotion of hybrid rice.
“The proposed force will finalise the strategies for the hybrid rice promotion with special emphasis on PPP model of seed production, procurement and marketing in consultation with states and other stakeholders,” he said.
The minister also suggested the formation of an empowered group of ministers at the state level for ensuring timely supply of required inputs to the farmers.
Apart from these, Mr Pawar proposed the creation of committees like the ones created by the ministry of power and ministry of water resources to ensure sufficient water and power supply during crop seasons.