Ladies and Gentlemen

This is a matter of pride for us that India is hosting the 20^th Session of APCAS.     Prior to this India had hosted the 2^nd  session in 1968.

We all know that the agricultural statistics are very essential for the planning which is done to provide food at the right time and at right price to the common person. 

Several State Governments of our country help us immensely in this regard.  Various schemes are being run by the Government for this purpose.  Agricultural census and Livestock census are being conducted with a lot of effort and care in our country.  For this the methodology adopted is improved from time to time with the advice of the experts.  Various improved technologies like Remote Sensing and GIS are also used for the purpose.

Information on international trade and food processing industries is also collected and utilized for the planning process.

Several apex institutions of this country like Ministry of Agriculture, CSO, NSSO, and Ministry of Statistics are continuously working in this area.

Information on size of holdings is very much beneficial for the purpose of preparation of various schemes and increasing the agricultural production.  Using the statistics, planning should be done to provide every individual of the world with necessary food, and planning should be done so that every country of the world becomes self reliant in food.

Special efforts should be made so that the farmers get remunerative prices for their produce.  Proper care should also be taken to save the environment while trying to increase the agricultural productivity.

World Agriculture Census 2010 should be done with proper preparation and with cooperation of each other.  Whenever there is an agriculture census in one country, experts from other countries should be invited so that they can have better experience.

I am happy to know that several countries like Japan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are using the OCR technique to make the statistics available at a speedier pace.  I congratulate the representatives of these countries.

In the field of agricultural statistics, we have been using Remote Sensing Technology for generation of advance estimates of cropped area.  However, use of this technology is at present limited to a few crops.  We have, therefore, recently formulated a scheme aimed at expanding coverage in terms of crops and States.  Other countries should also make use of the latest techniques.  More and more investment is required in agriculture to facilitate modernization.  Efforts should therefore be intensified to achieve this objective.  Government has already identified areas for focused and priority attention.  The identified areas include doubling rural credit in three years, dry land farming and horticulture, creation of additional irrigation facilities, market support to farmers and insurance of crops against production loss.

We all should have only one aim that not even a single person goes to bed hungry.  For this we all should make collective efforts.

In order to materialize all these, this session assumes a lot of importance.  I hope you would be able to reach at certain conclusions as a result of these deliberations which will also help improve relations among countries.

At the end I wish you all the best for the success of this Session and welcome you all in our country.

JAI HIND