After failing to come anywhere near the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-07) target of 4 per cent per annum rate of growth of agricultural output, the Planning Commission has projected a lower target growth rate of 3 to 3.5 per cent per annum for the 11th Plan period. While some may view this as a more modest target, others may consider it as still far too ambitious, given the track...

The NAC's recommendations on food security measures take heed of the fact that PDS reform is dependent on the availability of enough foodgrains. Three major elements of the United Progressive Alliance government's commitment to provide food security to the people are reforming the public distribution system (PDS), raising foodgrain productivity and production, and creating a decentralised, modern warehousing system. Ideally, the reforms in the PDS should have come first for the availability...

Even as the issue of price rise takes centrestage in Parliament, the government’s attempt to offload wheat in the open market has found few takers among small traders. The reason: the price of wheat fixed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for small traders is higher than the prevailing wholesale prices at major centres across the country. In June, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab...

Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan has warned that India’s food security is being steadily imperilled by the sharp decline in agricultural growth. Speaking on the Ministry of Earth Sciences Foundation Day Lecture 2010, Dr Swaminathan warned that in 2005-6, the agricultural growth was 5.2 per cent of GDP but according to Planning Commission statistics, it has dipped to 0.2 per cent in 2009-10. This would decline with a projected two degree temperature rise...

Some 48,315 tonnes of wheat procured by the Punjab government is to be fed to cattle after being declared unfit for human consumption. The stock, enough to feed around 595,000 people through the public distribution system (PDS) for a year, had piled up over the previous three years. Officials at the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which declared the grains unfit after an inquiry in March, said Punjab’s procurement agencies had...