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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

A lesson cooks in potato pot-Devadeep Purohit and Kinsuk Basu
-The Telegraph


Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government should have calculated the costs of possible retaliation by other states before banning potato export from Bengal, agriculture experts have said.

For now, no state has threatened a payback for the ban, clamped despite pleas from the chief ministers of Odisha and Assam after a shortage pushed up potato prices in Bengal.

As the Bengal administration grapples with the problem, importers of essential foodstuff have sounded a caution. "If other states adopt the same model during shortages of any crop within their territory, Bengal will be the worst loser," said a trader.

As Bengal mainly grows rice, jute and potato besides seasonal vegetables, some pulses and maize, its food basket - which includes fish and eggs - depends heavily on imports from other states.

The only threat of reprisal so far has come from some traders in Odisha, who have said they would detain trucks passing through the state carrying essential foodstuff and fish to Bengal from Andhra Pradesh and other states.

The threat may not mean much as such blockades would be a crime and may invite a crackdown by the administration. "Nor is banning potato export from a state correct under the Constitution," a Bengal government official said.

Article 301 of the Constitution says trade and commerce through the territory of India should be free.

"If this decision is challenged in court, the state government will be in trouble," the official added. A legal challenge is unlikely, though, if the state government keeps its promise about a short-lived ban.

Still, an agriculture expert said, it's time the government woke up to the potential impact of possible retaliation by other states and Bengal's own lapses in farm policy and planning that have helped create the crisis.

"The fertile soil of Malda and Murshidabad can produce the best variety of sona mung, one of the highest earning varieties of pulses. Bengal's agricultural economy can be revolutionised if maize is cultivated properly.... But there is no such effort or plan on the government's part," the expert said.

Proposals sent by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to successive Bengal governments to promote pulses and oilseed cultivation in Malda and Murshidabad have only been gathering dust, state government sources said.

Some other states such as Madhya Pradesh have responded to ICAR proposals and secured central grants to promote soybean production, a source said.

"During Left rule, agriculture policies were determined by prominent CPM leaders from Burdwan who held sway over the farmers. But they did not have much knowledge of modern agriculture. This government is following almost the same tradition," a senior official said.

Some officials, traders and experts told this newspaper the main problem was a lack of coordination between the agriculture, agricultural marketing and horticulture departments.

While the agriculture department's main goal is to promote the production of various crops through proper planning and irrigation, the agricultural marketing department is mandated to boost marketing of the crops and their storage. The horticulture department has the responsibility of aiding food-processing and ensuring proper linkages.

In this context, an agriculture expert cited the instance of capsicum. Neither have the farmers been educated that seasonal crops like capsicum have a market, nor has infrastructure been created to get the crop from the farms to markets, he said. "There lies the problem."

Capsicum imported from Bangalore is selling at Rs 120-130 a kg in Calcutta's markets.

One disincentive to large-scale production of vegetables in Bengal is the way successive state governments have ignored the need to upgrade cold storage facilities.

"In Delhi, the government has successfully used the Mother Dairy infrastructure to bolster the supply chain of vegetables and reduce waste. No one has thought about it in Bengal; that's why the state ranks at the bottom in terms of waste of vegetables," an agriculture expert said.

"The absence of a conducive environment has hindered the growth of agriculture in Bengal. That's why we continue to depend on other states for food."