SAZ, not SEZ, is need of the hour, says Green Revolution expert

CHANDIGARH: He was a champion of the Green Revolution that made the country self-reliant in food grain production over 50 years ago. Now, he says it’s time to scale up farm output once again to match the needs of a burgeoning population that will hit 1.50 billion in the next couple of decades in the country.
Renowned agri scientist M S Swaminathan, who was part of the team that raised yields in wheat and paddy cultivation, has advocated the formation of special agriculture zones (SAZs) where land will be pooled and utilised only for farming.He has also suggested that the Punjab-Haryana belt could host the first SAZ in the country.
In an article written by the 91-year-old scientist in the ‘Elsevier Journal,’ which he shared with TOI, Swaminathan said, “Procedures and purposes for which farm land is to be acquired have become a subject of considerable public and political concern and controversy. The bottom line should be public good and not private profit. At the same time, the food security of the country has to be safeguarded, since in the coming years food grains will not be easily available in the international market and price volatility will be high. Therefore, there is need for all party consensus both on preserving good farm land for farming and for adequate consultation and compensation before farm land is acquired for other purposes.”
Prof Swaminathan, who worked closely with Nobel laureate agronomist and geneticist Norman Ernest Borlaug of the US to usher in the Green Revolution, said that in the interest of food security, there is a need to create SAZs where land will be only utilised for farming. “Unlike special economic zone (SEZ), where land is allotted for non-farm purposes, SAZ should be designed to conserve prime farm land so that we do not revert to a ship to mouth existence. The Punjab-Haryana agricultural area could be the first SAZ in the country,” he said in the article.
To set up the SAZ, the former director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has suggested declaring areas characterised by fertile soils capable of sustaining two to three good crops a year as an SAZ. “SAZ identification and declaration may be made by state governments in consultation with farm men and women. Special facilities may be provided to farmers to maintain SAZ as the custodian of national food security,” Prof Swaminathan has observed.
The SAZ model, he said, would not only augment foodgrain production, it would help conserve rich soil in various regions which have the long-term potential for bumper harvests. “Aristotle said long ago that, ‘soil is the stomach of the plant’. If we do not attend to soil health and improvement, we will not be able to achieve the goal of ending hunger. No further time should be lost in establishing SAZ to save good agricultural soils for the present and future populations.”