Deterioration of soil quality and salinity of soil has become a major problem even in a state like Punjab. Do you feel it is because water has not been given the importance it needs and there is no water policy as such?
Water has been given importance in words, but not in action. All the problems are diagnosed and re-diagnosed but no action is forthcoming.
The sequence is awareness, analysis and action.
Where is the gap?
In our country, awareness is there but no analysis and action. There is no professionalism on the part of the government. Governments that have taken interest like the Gujarat government, have done well.
There is no magic to agriculture. A plant is the same like us.
The reason for no action is because agricultural administration is not professional. Civil servants come and go, including the director of agriculture. Nowhere in the world are such positions occupied by generalists.
We spend more time in selecting a cricket coach. Do we spend any time in selecting the director of the pulses mission? If we had spent the same amount of time we spend in selecting a cricket coach for agriculture, we would have been on top of the world!
You always speak of the necessity of a second Green Revolution. How can we achieve better growth at least, if not a revolution?
The media should ask the question to the government. People also should ask the question. Words are not substitutes for action.
Was it because the then government was pro-active, making it possible for you to achieve a Green Revolution in the 1960s?
Yes, there was a Green Revolution symphony then. Science, technology, public policy, input services, farmers' enthusiasm -- all of them came together in a symphony. (Then Union agriculture minister) C Subramaniam was a man of action. So, when we proposed the 5 year Plan in 1963, fortunately everything fell in place. Actually in 1963 when I proposed it first, there was no minister who would take interest. Fortunately, CS came in 1964. He approved it immediately. Everything was done very fast. Today, paralysis of analysis is taking place.
Image: An Indian farmer rakes wheat out for drying at the grain market in Amritsar.
Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images
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