I feel privileged to participate once again in the Convocation Ceremony of this University. The University has made great progress since my last visit over 10 years ago. The farm women and men of Assam, supported by the State Government as well as by the vision and far-sighted leadership of His Excellency the Governor of Assam and Chancellor of AAU, have helped to make Assam self sufficient in rice. Twenty years ago, I had classified Assam as "a green but not a green-revolution State". Today, I feel that Assam is going to be the flagship of an ever-green revolution movement in our country. Ever-green revolution implies continuous advances in productivity improvement without associated ecological or social harm. You, who are taking your degrees today, should spearhead this ever-green revolution movement, which is essential not only for the food, livelihood and ecological security of our country, but also for safeguarding our national sovereignty.

The rice revolution in Assam has been triggered by minor irrigation facilitated by shallow tube wells. The non-flood prone season has now become the major cropping season. The south West monsoon period, when mineral fertilizer application only promotes ammonia volatalisation and leaching losses, can then become a season for organic farming. Already, Assam is taking the leadership in the cultivation of organic rice, tea, fruits and vegetables. Assam can become the Organic Agriculture State of India, if the University can develop effective integrated nutrient supply systems involving the cultivation of stem nodulating green manure crops, the use of organic manures like compost and bio-fertilizers and adoption of cereal-legume crop rotations. Also, the University should set up an organic production certification system and a Codex Alimentarius training programme.

We had recently completed a Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India jointly with the World Food Programme. I will like to highlight some features relating to Assam.

The status of various states with regard to Food Availability was worked out by using the following parameters:

• Deficit of food production over consumption.
• Instability in cereal production.
• Environment Sustainability Index.
• Number of people affected by floods, cyclones, heavy rains and land slides.
• Percentage of area affected by drought to total geographical area.

Assam is quite secure in terms of food availability. Even though it has a deficit of food production over consumption, it fares well in terms of overall food availability because of its relative position with regard to the Sustainability index and Disaster index. In the early nineties, net production of cereals per capita per day was 341.40 grams while per capita consumption of cereals was 439 grams per day. Sustainability index was calculated using indicators such as area under forests, ground water depletion, extent of wasteland and area under legumes in the rotation. According to this index Assam ranks 5th as the environmentally most sustainable state among the 16 states considered. Ground water is not being exploited to its potential in Assam. Just about 5 percent of available ground water is sused in Assam, although there is a rapid change now. The level of ground water exploitation in Assam is the lowest in the country. Assam is not badly affected by drought or earthquake in comparison with other states and the impact of natural disasters excepting floods is relatively low.

This was assessed on the basis of the following eight indicators.

• Average per consumer unit per day calorie intake of the lowest deciles.
• Percentage of population consuming less than 1890 Kcal per consumer unit per day
• Percentage of population below the poverty line
• Percentage of population in labour households to total population.
• Rural Infrastructure Index
• Juvenile sex ratio -0 to 9 population
• Percentage of literate females to total female population
• Percentage of Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes population.

Assam ranks very low in terms of access to food. This is essentially because Assam fares poorly in terms of levels of per capita consumption, has a relatively high percentage of population below the poverty line, 45.01% in 1993-94, and a very poor development of rural infrastructure. Rural Infrastructure Index has been worked out taking into account the percentage of villages without electricity, percentage of households without electricity and piped water and road length. Assam has to intensify its efforts to attain a level of rural infrastructural development, essential for accelerated agricultural progress.

• Life Expectancy at age one
• Percentage of people with Chronic Energy Deficiency
• Percentage of severely stunted children under age five
• Percentage of severely wasted children unde4r age five
• Infant Mortality Rate
• Health Infrastructure Index

Assam fares poorly in terms of Food Absorption too. Among the 16 states considered, Bihar depicts the worst situation and Assam is the fifth lowest state with regard to food absorption and nutritional status. While Assam fares well in terms of Adult Health index as well as Child Health Index, it fares poorly in terms of development of Rural Health infrastructure. I appeal to all of you to pay concurrent attention to sustainable food production, enlarging livelihood opportunities and improving the biological absorption of food in the body.

Since the Tenth Five Year Plan will start in April 2002, I would like to refer to some of the issues which merit your attention.

Our agriculture is now at the crossroads. In one sense, we have been very successful in increasing the production of basic staples like rice and wheat. On the other hand, consumption capacity on the part of the economically underprivileged sections of the society is not improving. Also, with the coming into force of the WTO Agreement in agriculture, we are finding that the production techniques and productivity of farmers' farming are not able to complete with those of factory farming, endowed with heavy doses of technology, capital and subsidies. It is clear that we have to achieve the following revolutions, if our agriculture is to become economically rewarding and intellectually stimulating and thereby is in a position to attract and retain educated youth in farming.

• Productivity revolution
• Quality revolution
• Income and livelihood revolution (diversification and value addition)
• Management and marketing revolution, which can confer on small producers and advantages of scale both in the production and post-harvest phases of agriculture. It is such a management and institutional revolution that has taken us to a position of leadership in the Diary and Poultry sectors.

In the above context, we should review how our vast research, educational and extension infrastructure could be retooled and restructured to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. The most urgent takes today are enhancement of productivity per units of land and water as well as achieving a quantum jump in quality improvement. Quality has to be judged by culinary, organoleptic, nutritional and processing characteristics. Our agriculture which was christened as a gamble in the monsoon is fast becoming a gamble in the market.

Emphasising the critical role of agriculture in food, livelihood and ecological security as well as national sovereignty, the Steering Committee on Agriculture and Allied sectors, set up by the Planning Commission which I chair has made the following recommendations.

• Achieve 4% growth rate in agriculture and 8% in horticulture, animal products and fisheries and promote a farming systems approach in agricultural research and development.
• Unleash the untapped potential of major farming systems through integrated packages of technologies, services, including inputs like seed, and public policies.
• Pay special attention to ground water use in , West Bengal, Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
• Defend, extend and make new gains and convert "grey" into "green" areas and green into evergreen revolution areas.
• Achieve natural resources conservation and enhancement (land, water, biodiversity, forests, living aquatic resources and atmosphere).
• Foster a quality revolution (cooking, processing, freedom from mycotoxins, etc.
• Improve the income and employment (non-farm and on-farm) potential of agriculture and set up agro-industrial complexes in rural areas. Income enhancement is essential for improving consumption.
• Take note of market shifts in demand and consumption as well trends in employment pattern and promote scientific land and water use planning and farming systems diversification and value addition.
• Widen the food and feed security baskets, through greater attention to underutilised crops and forage grasses.
• Achieve a considerable increase in agricultural exports, particularly in value-added commodities (such as organic and processed foods).

• Strategic research involving frontier technologies, such as bio-information, space, nuclear and renewable energy technologies needs considerable intensification.
• Anticipatory research for mitigating the potential impact of climate change and ultraviolet-B radiation.
• Participatory research with farm women and men in order to develop location specific technologies which are environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable.
• Co-operative research with private sector R & D institutions.

The Steering Committee has recommended that the following National Challenge Projects maybe initiated during the Tenth Plan Period.

• Accelerating agriculture progress in Assam and eastern India (often described as the sleeping giant of Indian agriculture).
• Waste land development using Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana.
• Agro-Aqua farms along coastal region (linking ecological with livelihood security).
• Deep Sea Fishing.
• Mainstreaming gender dimensions of agricultural research, extension and development.
• Organic Farming Zones.
• Disease Free Zone in Cattle.
• Conservation of animal and microbial genetic resources.
• Soil Health Management with particular reference to micro nutrient deficiencies.
• Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and codex alimentarius standards.

On the basic of the National Challenge Project concept, this University could develop a few Assam Agricultural Challenge Projects, Horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and agro-forestry will quality for being developed into challenge areas, since there is a vast untapped production potential in these fields.

The term ever-green revolution refers to an improvement in crop and animal productivity in perpetuity. In other words, an ever-green revolution implies a vertical growth in productivity in perpetuity. We have no scope for a horizontal expansion in area and we have no option except to produce more crop per drop of water and per plot of land. This will call for taking to eco-farming techniques which are both ecologically sound and economically efficient. We must achieve cost reduction without yield loss. This will be possible only through precision farming techniques rooted in the principles of ecology, economics and efficiency.

The new Farmers' Farming will be based on knowledge, dynamic information and farm growth biological inputs, while Factory Farming will continue to be based on capital, chemicals and subsidies. Our major problem is to convert the vast know-how available in our research institutions into field-level do how. How can we convert know how into do how in a manner that the precision and eco-farming techniques reach the unreached, particularly women ? we have a vast extension infrastructure, starting with those developed during the Community Development programme of the fifties, and including those developed in the seventies and eighties with World Bank loans under the T & V (training and visit) programme. Agricultural extension will have the desiredimpact only if the following pre-conditions are fulfilled.

The term ever-green revolution refers to an improvement in crop and animal productivity in perpetuity. In other words, an ever-green revolution implies a vertical growth in productivity in perpetuity. We have no scope for a horizontal expansion in area and we have no option except to produce more crop per drop of water and per plot of land. This will call for taking to eco-farming techniques which are both ecologically sound and economically efficient. We must achieve cost reduction without yield loss. This will be possible only through precision farming techniques rooted in the principles of ecology, economics and efficiency.

The new Farmers' Farming will be based on knowledge, dynamic information and farm growth biological inputs, while Factory Farming will continue to be based on capital, chemicals and subsidies. Our major problem is to convert the vast know-how available in our research institutions into field-level do how. How can we convert know how into do how in a manner that the precision and eco-farming techniques reach the unreached, particularly women ? we have a vast extension infrastructure, starting with those developed during the Community Development programme of the fifties, and including those developed in the seventies and eighties with World Bank loans under the T & V (training and visit) programme. Agricultural extension will have the desiredimpact only if the following pre-conditions are fulfilled.

• Availability of a significant yield gap between potential and actual yields.
• Continuous feed back relationships with the research system (during the sixties and seventies, we had initiated the National Demonstration, Lab to Land, whole village/watershed operational research and Krishi Vigyan Kendra programmes for this purpose).
• Synchronisation in time and space of information and knowledge delivery with delivery of the inputs needed to apply that knowledge (like seeds of new varieties, rhizobium cultures, bio pesticides, etc.).
• Public policies in relation to input and output pricing and to providing opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing opportunities. An area of public policy which needs urgent attention is rendering proactive advice to farmers on how to adjust production with potential demand, both internal and external. Expenditure in connection with the strengthening of the national capacity for providing such proactive advice can be covered under the Blue Box payments or Green Box measures of the World Trade Agreement in Agriculture.

The existing extension staff need to be retrained in order to serve as Rural Knowledge Workers who can take new technologies to all farm families, irrespective of the size of holdings or level of literacy. Modern information and communication technology provides uncommon opportunities for developing a user-driven and user-controlled extension system. The information provide should be demand driven and should be relevant to time and specific farming systems. Re-training and re-deployment and not retrenchment should be the pathway for developing an extension system which is capable of stimulating an evergreen revolution in our farms.

If the extension service is to help small farmers adopt land and water use patterns linked to marketing opportunities, there will be need to restructure and strengthen the State Land Use Boards, so that they can give proactive advice to farm families on land use. The Agricultural University is the best location for such a recorganised Land Use Board. If this is not done, our farmer's fate will increasingly become a gamble in the market. We have an excellent capacity in remote sensing, weather forecasting and information technology. Therefore, there should be no difficulty in achieving a proper match between markets and land use.

The two new schemes were introduced this year relating to Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centers. If implemented properly they should help to enhance the timely provision of scientific inputs to small farmers. The following are the activities which a group of farm graduates (both men and women) can initiate.

The urgent needs are : area based pest-proofing using integrated pest management procedures, soil health and water management, estimation and correction of micronutrients deficiencies in the soil, animal health care, breeding and nutrition, agro-forestry and organic farming.

The same Farm Graduates' group which is operating agri-clinics or separate groups can organise agro-busisness centres. Such agri-business centres will be engaged in value addition to primary products (including plant and animal biomass) and agro-processing. Processing and marketing horticultural products can be a major thrust area for the Agri-business centres. The composition of each group may be on the basis of complementary expertise. Such groups can also establish and operate Community Food, Fodder and Feed Banks.

The private sector has a particularly important role to, play in bringing about a shift from unskilled to skilled work in agriculture and allied sectors. For this purpose, the following initiatives will be useful.

I once again congratulate you all on your outstanding academic achievements. You will now face the challenge of converting your academic knowhow into field level do how. I wish you much success in establishing Agri Clinics and Agri-business Centres and in helping Assam to become the first ever-greenrevolution State of our country through its leadership in organic farming and sustainable agriculture.