My tryst with agriculture management

During that time, a very rewarding and interesting opportunity came my way. I travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to meet my counterpart in that country, to hold discussions about the finalising of the draft agenda for an upcoming bilateral Ministerial conference of the Ministers of the two countries. It was what was called a Joint Working Group. There is as much similarity between the agro – ecological environment of the two countries as there are sharp variations. It was, therefore, a challenge to work out a productive and useful agenda, a task which we were able to accomplish successfully. I wanted nothing so much, at that stage, than to become Secretary, Agriculture, of the country at some point in the future!

I am normally a person with a cheerful disposition and loath to taking things seriously beyond a point. The Ministry was really a busy place continuously buzzing with hectic activity. "Never a dull moment" was the way a colleague of mine put it. Given the importance of the subject, and its sensitive nature, that was quite understandable. Still, I found the degree of excitement mildly amusing. In fact, someone once asked me, "How can you keep smiling in the midst of all these?" I replied saying that it would have been impolite to laugh out loud!

The vast canvas a JS deals with, and the opportunity to deal with every part of the country, and the whole world, notwithstanding, handling a desk in the government of India can have its challenges.

Firstly, one missed the cosy and homely ambience one had got used to in the State. In Hyderabad, one could always make a mistake and correct it later, in view of the informality of the relationships with the other officials and political leaders. In Delhi, however, once a paper left one's desk, it carried with it one's mistakes and follies once and for all! Relationships with subordinate staff, peers and superiors were stiff, formal and mostly involved dealing with unfamiliar persons from different services and backgrounds. The office staff was also extremely rule-minded and not used to responding differently to different situations at different times.

I handled several desks in my capacity as a JS. Starting with agricultural extension, I went through divisions dealing with policy and planning, marketing, trade, policy coordination, cooperation & credit and international cooperation (IC). My mandate as JS (IC) was very interesting. Apart from organising training programmes for Indian agriculture experts in various parts of the world and assisting the Secretary and the Minister in fulfilling their commitments in international relations and events, my main responsibility was managing the interaction with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

The FAO had two bodies that had periodical meetings. One was the Conference which comprised all the member countries and was the supreme governing body of the organisation. The other was the Council, which comprised 49 members elected by the members of the Conference. As JS (IC) I normally attended both the meetings, sometimes accompanying the Secretary. Needless to say, they were very educative experiences and provided an opportunity to understand the status and problems of agriculture the world over. India, as is the case of other countries, had a Permanent Representative (PR) in the Indian Embassy in Rome who was normally the India Ambassador to Italy. An official of the Ministry also functioned in the Embassy as an alternative to the PR and was generally called the Minister of Agriculture. At one point of time, in fact, I had also made a bid for that post, although unsuccessfully! During the visits to Rome, especially when accompanying the Secretary, formal calls were made upon the Director General FAO and, often, the Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the Director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). India had many programmes at that time which were substantially assisted by all the three organisations.

Dealing with the subject of IC also meant that I dealt with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). That was an exciting experience especially, as, at that time, the run up to the signing of the Agreement in Agriculture by Balram Jakhar (to be signed in 2002), had just begun. As I pointed out elsewhere, our country is rather underprepared in dealing with matters of international significance. So was the case in WTO. In one meeting I noticed that delegations from developed countries usually comprised a large number of legal professionals and agriculture experts and one or two civil servants (mostly to deal with logistics). And here I was, all by myself and trying to fathom in vain the complexities of the discussions that were taking place all around me!

It was during those days that I also had an opportunity to lead a delegation of experts to Eritrea and then what was known as the Telefood programme under the umbrella of South - South Cooperation. The highlight of the programme was that, unlike similar arrangements which involved short visits (by a small number of highly placed officials to the capital of the country), a large number of middle-level experts were sent, for substantial periods to fan out into the nooks and corners of the country. The whole idea was to demonstrate the value of bilateral cooperation through tangible results over a considerable period of time. I was lucky to be able to prepare that initial project report. While handling IC, I also attended a conference in Paris of countries belonging to the OECD.

During that time, a very rewarding and interesting opportunity came my way. I travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to meet my counterpart in that country, to hold discussions about the finalising of the draft agenda for an upcoming bilateral Ministerial conference of the Ministers of the two countries. It was what was called a Joint Working Group. There is as much similarity between the agro – ecological environment of the two countries as there are sharp variations. It was, therefore, a challenge to work out a productive and useful agenda, a task which we were able to accomplish successfully.

I wanted nothing so much, at that stage, than to become Secretary, Agriculture, of the country at some point in the future!

And that wish did get fulfilled, although in a somewhat anticlimactic manner. Having gone through the sequence of postings at the levels of JS, AS and Special Secretary, I was finally posted as the Union Agriculture Secretary, early in January 2003.

I had just about settled down in my much coveted assignment and had, in fact, concluded making arrangements for a proposed visit to the European Commission at Brussels, the FAO headquarters at Rome and the WTO headquarters at Geneva, when I was summoned to the AP Bhavan to meet Chandrababu Naidu. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister asked me if I would be willing to come back to the State as the Chief Secretary. Not wanting to hold myself responsible, in the future, either for the regret at leaving the present post or the possible disappointment, as against expectations, in the post offered, I left the decision to him. The right thing to do, really, as the Chief Minister was the head of the government of the State the IAS cadre of which I belonged.

And that, more or less, was the end of my official relationship with the subject of agriculture. I did deal with it again as the member in charge of floods at NDMA and as a Member of the Board of Supervision of NABARD in later years. In more recent times I have penned a few articles on the subject in some journals and dailies and, am now in the process of writing a book on the subject.

A long and passionate courtship with the subject, indeed, for a person who belongs to a family that has not undertaken farming for generations and more.

(Concluded)

(The writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)