Patil's first address has farm focus

In her first public address after assuming office, President Pratibha Patil today called for new policy initiatives to enhance agriculture growth.

"This is my first assignment after taking over as the president of India and the reason I am here is that everything can wait but not agriculture," Patil said.

"It will be important to bear in mind that our agricultural strategies should not only be pro-poor and pro-nature but also pro-women," the country's first women president said in her address on agriculture and food security here.

It was essential to enlist the support of the panchayati raj institutions and agricultural universities to empower farmers in both value-added processing and marketing, she said at a function organised by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Patil said the success story of the first Green Revolution had run its course and "we cannot afford to rest on our laurels." The momentum generated by the first revolution needed to be sustained, she said.

Quoting the Economic Survey, the president said agricultural growth had become lacklustre as rainfed areas still constituted about 65 per cent of the total net sown area.

She said the diminishing size of land holdings, degradation in land quality and soil health due to improper nutrient application and threats of global warming were plaguing India's agricultural production environment. "Agriculture has to remain at the centre stage in our nation's economic thinking for making it attractive and rewarding," she said.