So, this is about sustainable development. We are so greedy that they want to take every-thing from the earth today, and we don't want to leave anything for the future.

So, if we reduce our demands, if we reduce our requirements, then only will there be the possibility of sustainable development,

On the question of population, whether the earth can sustain it or not, this was discussed about 70 years back when Mahatma Gandhi -- we were fighting the freedom struggle. And I think he said, "I don't consider this question of family planning," He said, "India can support more than double the population that it has today." And actually, " we are supporting more than three times the population.

So, the Mother Earth has the capacity to increase productivity. Only thing is that, our technology, our research, our method of cultivation should be geared to that extent.

With this background, I will now just like to mention that we, in India, have been able to increase our production, increase our productivity, increase the use of inputs -- whether it is fertilizers or seeds or others.

But the only point is, we did not have a concrete policy against which these developments were taking place. Agriculture here never -- we face difficulty about productivity, we even went into research and started new seed varieties. Whenever the land were becoming less fertile, we started using fertilizers. But the aim was to have a system of which --against the backdrop of which agricultural production can be increased. That is why in 1992, we drafted the for first time an agricultural policy. It has been discussed in the Parliament, it has been discussed by the state governments. And, luckily, I have been involved in drafting the final shape of the agricultural policy which we are likely to adopt very shortly.

So, I will just give some highlights of that agricultural policy which we are going to finalize shortly.

The first thing is, what is the need for a policy?

As I mentioned earlier, that we were finding solutions to the problems, which we presented ourselves. But there was no long-term strategy or long-term planning for those solutions -- for those problems. No agricultural policy, in long-term perspective and strategy has been devised. Moreover, there was a problem of additional imbalance. Our green revolution brought prosperity to a few parties on the country but the other parties were neglected. So, there was a need to give chance to the other areas also. So, the agricultural policy was devised to see that a balance is maintained in all the areas and with various crops.

The aim of the policy is to create an environment by which the farmer feels that he should invest more in the agricultural sector to increase production, increase productivity and generate surplus for their exports. But what have made today, earlier, that the farmer said that agriculture was not a paying proposition, it was a losing concern so that is why peo-