Sh. Tarun Shridhar (IAS retd.)

Chairman - CARD, Former Secretary - Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Government of india
chairman@card.org.in

Agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for more than 50% of India's population and contributes 15% to the country's GDP. Though the Green Revolution in the 1960s has made India self-sufficient, but there are still numerous challenges viz., land fragmentation, marginal and subsistence nature of the Indian farming, soil degradation, water scarcity, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, low value addition and poor farmer market linkages to name a few. More than 83% of farmers have landholdings of less than two acres. Limited post-harvest infrastructure, untimely weather events and weak value chain linkages have resulted in post-harvest losses as high as 30% for fruit and vegetables. Food and nutritional security is now a major concern more so in the wake of climate change, which requires adoption of sustainable agriculture practices. In this purview, CARD has been playing an unassuming role in the field of environment, agriculture and rural development, since its inception in the year 2000.

CARD acts as a bridge between the network of agricultural community and various other stake- holders, namely; central and state governments, international organizations, developmental agencies, corporate, academia, and end-users through projects and partnerships on the field. I am appreciative of all those partners, who have extended their unswerving support to build CARD into an institution of great repute and grow its unfailing passion to work for advancement of the rural communities.

CARD resonates with the sentiments of the key architect of India's Green Revolution, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan :“ If Agriculture fails, everything else will fail " Thus, we have to work relentlessly to help build capacities of our farmers, rural youths, women groups, and agro professionals. We also have to make modern agro-technologies available and awareness generated about the schemes and opportunities, and facilitate farmers access them to improve their farm productivity, income levels and quality of rural living.