Amazing Poetic Speech of Sh. Nadir Godrej which The President of India Enjoyed

Poetic Speech on Doubling Indian Agriculture

By Sh. Nadir Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Agrovet Ltd., at Vigyan Bhawan in the Presence of Hon'ble President of India in the Inauguration Session on 1/2/2013

Sh. Nadir Godrej delivering his speech at the Conference... read the text below...

I am honored and thankful to Sh. Nadir Godrej ji for forwarding me the softcopy of his speech on my request, so that I can share with you all. Please read the same, think about it and Enjoy... more than once...

While agriculture plods along

The other sectors have been strong.

Our service sector is the star.

And industry has come quite far

Although right now it's been laid low

Thanks to a crippling double blow.

Recurrent scandals stemmed the flow

Of coal and gas and iron ore,

Preventing us from making more.

As if that was not quite enough

The RBI chose to get tough

With interest rates that are sky high

And make investors very shy.

On this subject I've much to say

But I'll wait for another day,

Since agriculture is our theme.

At current rates it would seem

That twenty years is what we need

For one doubling to succeed

But our leader, Rajju Shroff,

To whom, my hat I now do doff,

Wants to do it in a mere five.

An impossible dream to make us strive?

Or something that, if we believe,

We could go out and achieve?

Now at first glance it would seem

That it is an impossible dream.

Our farmers haven't seen the light

And land and water are finite.

Excuses one will always find

But true success lies in the mind.

If we want to do a lot

We must cut the Gordian knot!

They say that land is no more made,

(Except in Holland and Cuffe Parade).

Nor can we count on very much.

For agriculture the situation's such

That land is lost to other trades

For factories, townships, escapades.

This is a problem, all the same,

We can still play the high yield game.

Much more can grow in every field

If only we improve the yield.

It's done abroad, it's tested here

And yet somehow we always fear

It won't be done in the field

And still we see that the yield

Of  hybrid corn is rising fast

Ten tons per hectare's been surpassed.

Though corn is priced less than wheat

On value yield it can now beat

All other cereals by a lot

Much growth therefore can be got

Quite simply by changing crop.

That’s one more way that we can stop

The paradigm of measly growth.

Now strangely India has been loath

To certify all GM food.

I don't know how this should be viewed.

Of course we should avoid grave risk

But every process should be brisk.

If others see a benefit,

We should also do our bit.

Bath water should be thrown away

But we should let the baby stay.

GM's a tool that we should wield

For further increase of our yield.

And inputs also play a role

Higher usage helps the goal.

But India lags far behind.

In China though one does find

The usage is twenty fold

And what if we could be that bold?

Our yield would go even higher

But to be a real high flyer

We also need to multi crop

Thirty percent is just a drop.

Why with three crops on all our land

Our goal for growth would be in hand.

But water would then be required.

The supply's much less than is desired.

But for recycling there’s great scope

And that is what gives us some hope.

But right now no one seems to care

And if it's free that's only fair.

We'd solve the problem in a trice

If only we'd give it a price.

Much of the rainfall we could store.

Heavy users wouldn't use more.

Sugarcane would moderate

And farmers would operate

With sprinklers and drip irrigation

And soon we'd find that in our nation

Demand and supply quickly match

And we'll cultivate every patch

Not just once or even twice

But while we're at it, why not thrice?

For those who think that water's free

And so refuse to pay a fee

We could allow a tiny quota

A kindly gesture for the voter!

So far I've talked of crops in fields

And shown how to improve the yields.

But of the Agri GDP

One third's animal husbandry.

The dairy growth is very steady

But poultry's growth is truly heady.

One thing we should understand

Fast dairy growth requires more land

If we multi-crop the field

And improve the fodder yield

Our dairy sector would then grow

And milk will surely overflow.

Now poultry is the way to go.

There are two products as we know

There is the egg and then there's meat.

The egg is an amazing thing

And I for one could always sing

Its praises, for it’s packaged well

With its own protective shell.

And in it you will surely find

Fine nutrients of every kind.

It can be cooked in many ways

Prepared in minutes, not hours or days.

And I don't want to sound contrarian

But sterile eggs are vegetarian.

Not just an ordinary view but rather,

The considered view of our nation's father.

For both eggs and meat you should know

That poultry feed conversion's low.

Unlike cows they don't eat grass

But in a sense they also pass.

Soya meal and corn are fed

And though perhaps it could be said

That these are foods that we might eat

No one would treat them as a treat.

And can we make the case much better

Not just in spirit but in letter

Make a feed that won't compete

With any food, that humans eat.

Can we fulfill such a dream?

With newer enzymes it would seem

The digestibility could be bettered

Locked nutrients could be unfettered.

And what would be your reactions

To feed made from low cost extractions?

I'm sure you'd all be delighted

A golden era has been sighted

With rapid poultry growth in store

And the ability to feed many more

Without the use of added land

Can help us meet the food demand.

The government can play role

And help us all achieve the goal.

Land ceilings could be slowly eased

Large tracts of land could then be leased,

A water pricing policy,

Encouragement of  R&D

And relaxing the APMC.

A duty on edible oil

Will help grow more on our own soil.

Indeed, a lot needs to be done.

But when we all work as one

Obstacles can be surmounted.

Our successes will be counted.

Our agriculture will go far

This sector will become the star.

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Do send your views about the speech, I will pass on the same to Sh. Nadir Godrej ji from your side...