Speech on Agriculture Meet 2010

ICAR-Industry Meet – 2010
Speech
Hon’ble Prof. K.V.Thomas,
Union Minister of State of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

Shri Sharad Pawar Ji, Union Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution; Dr Ayyapan, Secretary, DARE and Director-General, ICAR; Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, Additional Secretary, DARE and Secretary, ICAR; invitees from the industry, scientists, friends from media, ladies and gentlemen!

The National Agricultural Research System (NARS), spearheaded by the ICAR is serving a wide variety of research objectives, ranging from the system’s traditional emphasis on increasing food security by increasing yield and output, to new pathways that aim at providing livelihood security and poverty alleviation. This paradigm shift necessitates creating appropriate mechanisms for providing smallholders and other vulnerable social groups with new technological options. Implicit in this shift is also greater awareness of the demand for research derived from markets for both, the staple food as well as the high-value agricultural commodities — a significant change from the conventional tendency attempting to directly cater to the end-point elements in a value chain. This requires widening the focus, from research for technological innovation, - to - building a complete value-chain around the innovation.

Hitherto, the NARS has played its role directly or through the agriculture extension system in developing new technologies and encouraging their adoption and production by the farmers. However, the emergence of a strong private sector capacity in agricultural R&D has created new challenges and opportunities for the agricultural research system. In the changing scenario, effective institutional linkages between public and private research laboratories can increase the flow of technology-oriented knowledge across the system.

The processes through which new technologies are researched, developed, and disseminated are characterized by complex interactions among diverse actors, markets, institutions; and public-private partnerships are emerging as a viable approach to conducting research for development. The principal objective of developing these partnerships would be to link the fundamental, or pre-technology, research capacity of public sector institutions with the commercial research and marketing expertise of the private sector.

Planning the role for public–private collaboration in agriculture research and development needs to look beyond the aspects of resource generation, and risk and benefit sharing only. It should focus on the opportunities and possibilities that such arrangements will deliver for improved outcomes aligned with the government’s holistic approach of development and intended growth strategy for the agricultural sector. These could be improved productivity, greater crop or livestock diversity, technology transfer for employment generation, and expansion of the intended markets; be that local, urban or export. These partnerships could also be helpful in fostering the much-needed linkages between inventor in the public sector, technology user in the private sector, and the farmer; who is the end user of technology.

Nevertheless, development of formal institutional linkages between the public and private sectors, particularly in agricultural research, in our country, is relatively a new concept. The nature and scope of such linkages is still evolving and warrant further analysis and discussion; and I am sure the two-day meet of ICAR-Industry interface would provide the right platform for working out innovative arrangements that serve to build strategic relationships with each other.

One of the major issues of public-private cooperation in research that has important social and economic consequences is the content of the collaborative research agenda. In this regard, the three pertinent parameters that could be used for assessing the need of a public–private partnership are: (i) whether the partnership contributes to reducing the costs of research, (ii) whether it promotes innovative research and substantially adds to the knowledge base, and (iii) whether it enhances the impact of research and technology development on small and marginal farmers.

The primary requisite for building a successful public-private partnership would be confidence building among the partners, and this would require understanding and appreciation of mutual strengths and weaknesses. This would help in proper selection of partners and their harmonious interaction, which would be very important for achieving the mutually agreed objectives. It is crucial that each partner acts faithfully and legitimately to implement the partnership.

It is equally important that partnerships are based on negotiated legal, financial, and governance framework for partnering. The scope of the partnership, contributions of the partners, funding, governance, and distribution of benefits have to be pre-defined through some kind of partnership agreement or contract.

Another major concern in public-private partnerships is the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The increasing applicability of IPRs in agriculture research and development and their implications on technology transfer and commercialization also need to be properly understood. Conventionally, the public sector organisations have much less experience in negotiations, moreover, the differing cultures and perspectives between public and private organizations can add to difficulties. Therefore, suitable capacity building on technical and legal aspects of IPRs is essential for negotiating partnerships. I am happy to know that ICAR has taken the initiative for the development of trained manpower and capacity building across the country, and over 600 persons from ICAR institutes and State Agriculture Universities have been exposed to the nuances of the overall subject of IP management and Technology Transfer. Nonetheless, this capacity building exercise will have to be a dynamic process and in tune with the new global developments emerging in the area.

Although much has been advocated in support of public–private partnerships as a mechanism by which to foster agricultural research and innovation, they are still underutilized and little understood. The Meet would provide ICAR institutes a unique opportunity for show-casing the technologies developed by them to a large cross section of industry and exploring avenues for taking to the market the selected technologies which have been assessed to have high commercial potential. The interaction would also be important to appraise the trends of research collaboration and technology transfer between ICAR and private sector so as to have increased synergy between the institutes developing the knowledge and technologies and the potential industry recipients.

I am sure the deliberations during the next two days would provide the right opportunity to the partners to communicate and exchange ideas effectively, judiciously identify areas of complementarity and synergy, and build and sustain trust through inter-personal and organizational relationships.


Jai Hind!