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NAIP
The
green revolution in wheat and rice, white revolution in
milk, yellow revolution in oilseed and the “blue
revolution” in fisheries have augmented the food basket
of the country. But many technological challenges
remain. First, despite the shrinking share (23%) of the
agricultural sector in the economy, the majority of the
labour force (nearly 60%) continues to depend on
agriculture. About 75% of India’s poor people with low
purchasing power live in rural areas and nearly 60% of
the cultivated area is under rainfed farming. Hence,
the National Agricultural Policy and the Tenth Five Year
Plan place high priority on raising agricultural
productivity as a means to achieve more rapid
agricultural growth and reduce rural poverty. Secondly,
stagnating/decelerating productivity growth and
declining total factor productivity in agriculture have
cast doubts on the resilience of the sector to meet the
challenges of a more market-driven and competitive
regime. Related to the issue of stagnating productivity
is the obvious limited connection between input use and
productivity growth performance. Thirdly, current
unsustainable land and water use practices will lead to
lower agricultural productivity in the future.
Fourthly, ensuring economic and ecologically sound
access to food to every Indian, while conserving and
improving the natural resources and traditional wisdom,
in a more competitive regime, is yet another challenge.
To
address these challenges and to generate additional
income and employment for the poor, the role of
agricultural research and development, the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has initiated
National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) with the
following objectives:
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To
build the critical capacity of the ICAR as a
catalyzing agent for management of change in the
Indian NARS.
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To
promote ‘production to consumption systems research’
in priority areas/ themes to enhance productivity,
nutrition, profitability, income and employment.
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To
improve livelihood security of rural people living
in the selected disadvantaged regions through
technology-led innovation systems, encompassing the
wider process of social and economic change covering
all stakeholders.
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To
build capacity to undertake basic and strategic
research in frontier areas of agricultural sciences
to meet challenges in technology development in the
immediate and predictable future.
To meet these objectives, the ICAR has
accordingly designed four components under the NAIP for
implementation across the country. AFPRO is awarded with
one sub-project i.e., Research on
Sustainable Rural Livelihood Security (SRLS).
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