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Mr. Chairman, Mr. Director General, Excellencies and Friends:

It is our belief that the deliberations at this important forum will foster still further the spirit of mutual cooperation between the member countries from our part of the globe and that this will result in the development of specific strategies and concrete action plans to actualize the long cherished goals of regional cooperation in the field of agriculture.

2. The challenges we face in Asia today are enormous. While our region can boast of rapid economic growth rates and increasing global significance, we also host the large majority of under-nourished people in the world. We also face serious questions on the sustainability of our food production practices and growth rates in agriculture. Such challenges underscore the need to synergize our strengths and pool our resources, while collaborating to overcome our weaknesses.

3. Indian agriculture continues to grow. All major crops display rising trends of production on virtually constant area coverage thereby indicating improved productivity. For the year 2003-2004, the estimated production of food-grains, pulses, oil seeds, coarse cereals, cotton and commercial fibres is likely to be 4-8% higher than the corresponding figures for the last ¡®normal year¡¯, 2001-2002, and much higher if compared to the drought year 2002-2003. That was one of the worst ever droughts in our recorded history but the crisis was addressed in a coordinated and comprehensive manner by the Central and State authorities. The huge production losses in 2002, however, remind us of our continuing over-dependence on the monsoon.

4. Profitability of agricultural operations and enhancement of farm incomes is a focus area for us. We have, therefore, been laying great emphasis on adapting market mechanisms to best sub-serve the interests of farmers in the fast changing scenario. Our policy of minimum support prices and procurement prices for various agricultural produce is well known. We have taken a number of market reform measures ranging from removal of control on movement, storage and marketing etc. to establishment of agricultural commodity exchanges. Our National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has constituted a fund with a corpus of the equivalent of USD 12 billion to facilitate development of agriculture infrastructure projects at low interest rates.

5. The issue of profitability and remunerativeness of agriculture to which we attach the greatest importance has an obvious linkage with the international trade regime. India has consistently emphasized that the on-going process of negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture must ensure an outcome which is in accordance with the spirit of the Doha Declaration, and leads us forward towards meeting the long term objective of a fair and market-oriented trading system in agricultural products. For developing countries like India, where hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers and a vast poor rural population depend on agriculture for food and livelihood security, the special and differential treatment requirement enshrined in the Doha Declaration remains central to meet their legitimate concerns in agriculture. Since developing countries by and large insure their vulnerable farming communities from high income risks and price volatility due to existing distortions in global markets through the sole instrument of tariff protection, the intrinsic inter-linkages and balance among the three pillars in the agriculture negotiations must ensure that developing country commitments in market access respect the principle of ¡°less than full reciprocity¡± in their commitments against those undertaken by developed countries. It has been well acknowledged by all concerned that substantial reductions in the trade-distorting domestic support and the elimination of all forms of export subsidies provided by many developed countries, and the substantial lowering of tariff barriers, particularly in products of export interest to developing countries, will all contribute to remove the inequities and imbalances in the current dispensation on agricultural products. The issue before the global community is to translate this acknowledgement to real and effective reform of their agriculture.

6. Mr. Chairman, we do not wish to dwell at length on the importance of the Asian region to the global agricultural scenario. Asia has emerged as the Power-House of World Agriculture. While much has been achieved through national agricultural systems, regional synergies need to come into play with greater vigour to ensure that these enterprises do not reach a plateau. The present forum has, therefore, an important role to play in providing the much-needed impetus to identify frameworks and strategies for regional and sub-regional collaborations.

7. The agenda of the conference touches on several vital areas. Exchange of views on issues such as sustainability of rice production in the region, development of innovative extension mechanisms, strategies to attain World Food Summit targets will, no doubt, bolster our efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. The deliberation of the Senior Officers Meeting on the issue of rice production has brought the issue of economic survival of the rural resource-poor farmers in Asia and the Pacific to the forefront. This emphasis given to rice-based farming systems will help in tackling poverty in the region.

8. Another issue where considerable discussion has taken place in the Senior Officers Meeting relates to extension services and its changing perspective from the point of view of developments in ICT and mass media support. India has taken many initiatives in the area of extension including Information Technology and demand-driven extension services being provided by NGOs, civil society organisations and the private sector. We look forward to the generation of new ideas in this important sphere from this Conference.

9. We cannot help noting with concern, the long term implications of FAO¡¯s budgetary constraints. The 2004-2005 budget level of 6% below the ¡®Zero Real Growth¡¯, we are told, among other things, will entail the loss of 80 professional positions. It is more than likely that this will affect several key programmes in the Asia-Pacific region. While we appreciate the limitations facing the Organization at this stage, we call upon the major donors to appreciate that such programme and content reductions will, in the long run, have deleterious implications for food and livelihood security over a large part of the world. We do hope therefore that they will facilitate enhanced funding of FAO. If necessary, special efforts need to be mounted to attract extra-budgetary resources to meet critical requirements. We also hope that in the International Year of Rice, there will be no flagging of support for capacity-building and dissemination of information for sustainable development of rice based eco systems.

10. Budgetary stringency has resulted in down-sizing several programme entities. Budget cuts on matters of special concern to the developing countries, particularly technical support and capacity-building are deeply worrying. The need to balance the ¡®normative¡¯ and the field programmes can not be overemphasized. A tilt towards the normative to the detriment of the latter needs to be arrested and reversed immediately. Aside from being inequitous this militates against the primary mandate of the FAO viz., eradication of hunger and promotion of well being through self-sufficiency in food production.

11. In the recent past, one of the crowning achievements of the FAO has been the Special Programme of Food Security, especially South-South Cooperation, wherein more developed member-countries extend a helping hand to others in attaining food security under arrangements enabled and over-seen by the Organization. Much pioneering effort has gone into this tripartite innovation and many lessons learnt. There is every reason to believe that when the development initiatives in the countries in transition are chronicled, this particular initiative will find pride of place among initiatives undertaken towards the closing moments of the second millennium and a major laurel for the FAO. Several countries in our region have participated in this constructive endeavour and India has supported the programme in 4 countries. We do feel that this programme can have a significant impact in our region too.

12. Inter-country cooperation in our region has yielded gratifying results in several key areas. The success of such collaborative efforts attests to the great potential of our region in forging alliances on matters of common concern for the greater good not only of our own region but to ensure that our synergies result in enabling FAO and other organizations to achieve their goals with greater success in the light of perspectives provided by us. We have no doubt that the insights gained in this important regional meeting will help ensure that the concerns of this region adequately inform decision-making and policy planning in the FAO and that we, the Member-countries, would leave this forum with a sense of fulfillment at the spirit of cooperation and mutual appreciation that has permeated our deliberations. We are determined to use this forum as a platform for working together to achieve our common goals.

ead-Quarters Conference must be a forward linkage

In closing, I would like to place on record our deep appreciation for the excellent arrangements made by our host, Government of the PRC to make our deliberations fruitful and this event memorable.