Agriculture turnaround story of Gujarat is eye opener for the entire nation: APJ Abdul Kalam

New Delhi, 16 July 2012

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam today lauded Gujarat for achieving 9 per cent farm growth against over 3 per cent at national level.

Speaking on the 84th foundation day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in presence of union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, Dr. Kalam praised Gujarat for maintaining 9 per cent agriculture growth rate for the past seven years.

“The entire India has achieved only over 3 per cent growth rate in agriculture production. How Gujarat is able to attain 9 per cent growth rate?” Kalam said recalling the question he had posed to Centre for Management in Agriculture (CMA) that assisted the state in its agricultural policy.

Kalam said the agriculture turnaround story of Gujarat was “an eye opener for the entire nation”.

Gujarat was impeded by factors like depletion of water table, deterioration of soil and water conditions due to salinity ingress, irregularity of rainfall and recurrent drought in early 2000.

Despite these adverse factor, Gujarat transformed itself to achieve 9 per cent growth in agriculture and sustained it for the last seven years, he said.
Kalam said this was achieved due to mission mode action by the Gujarat government.

He said instead of giving free powers to farmers, the Gujarat government ensured 3 phase electricity supply to agriculture on 24/7 basis.

This was done by reorganising the power distribution channels with latest state-of-the art gadgets and segregating the power distribution between domestic and agricultural consumption.