Crops are grown outside our towns. Anger over food prices grows in our towns. Put these two facts together, and you can figure out exactly how divorced, sometimes, the justifiable concern about food inflation is from the cold realities of agriculture. It is not as if we can really blame ourselves for blindness, either; the unreformed, statist nature of price discovery in agriculture insulates us, as in no other sector,...
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Along the food chain by MK Venu
Politicians, from the ruling party and opposition alike, are grappling with the problem of how to effectively communicate with their constituencies on the issue of high food inflation. One had thought it would be easy for the opposition to mount a campaign on rising prices against the ruling coalition, but it appears that inflation and its impact on the political economy is far more complex today than it was 10...
More »Hybrid hopes
The Government of India’s initiative to focus on agricultural development in the eastern states, as represented by the meeting that the Union ministers for finance and agriculture attended in Kolkata last week, is welcome if belated. Some may see this as a pre-election gimmick with an eye to elections in Bihar and Bengal. But there is no gainsaying the fact that the region’s agricultural economy needs a productivity boost. Among...
More »Basmati planting to rise in flood-hit areas
India’s top grain-producers Punjab and Haryana will raise planting of basmati rice as floods have washed away the recently sown regular grades, farmers and trade officials said on Monday. Basmati rice can be planted late, but yields are much lower than regular grades, with farmers also having to face fluctuating market prices, unlike common rice grades that official agencies buy at fixed, attractive rates. “Paddy output will certainly drop this year. However,...
More »Pre-requisites for sustainable food security by MS Swaminathan
The goal of food for all can be achieved only through greater and integrated attention to production, procurement, preservation and public distribution. The President, in her address to Parliament on June 4, 2009, announced: “My Government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in...
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