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aGRICULTURE
"The most important challenge in 2011 is to ensure food security for a population of 1.2 billion human beings and 1 billion farm animals. This has to be accomplished under conditions of diminishing per capita land and water resources", adds Dr Swaminathan. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has alerted developing countries about possible steep rises in food prices during 2011 if steps are not taken immediately to increase significantly the production of major food crops. We need to make a major investment in post-harvest infrastructure, including a national grid of ultra-modern grain storage. Farmers’ suicides have to be checked by improving the economic well-being and livelihood security, he adds. During 2011 the National Food Security Act may be passed by Parliament. The right to food can be implemented only with the help of farmers. Therefore, the future belongs to nations with grains and not guns, remarks Dr Swaminathan.
All government departments will have to learn to work together and deliver as one. The media will have to be the watchdog for ensuring that no child, woman or man goes to bed hungry. In the coming year, too, price rise may haunt the UPA government. Shortages and supply glitches have led to the price rise. What is the government doing? Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar says, "In order to increase the availability of foodgrains in the market, the government has banned the export of non-basmati rice and pulses." He attributes the price rise to domestic supply-demand mismatch, an increase in the minimum support prices, hardening of international farm commodity prices, changes in the consumption pattern, adverse weather conditions and climate change. Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kaushik Basu, part of the expert panel set up to study the NAC recommendations on national food security, have pointed out that (a) the proposal is not affordable; and (b) it is near impossible to procure and store the required foodgrains. The FCI has sanctioned an additional storage capacity of 150.80 lakh tonnes, claims chairman Siraz Hussain. The state-level committees of the FCI have been given the powers to sanction storage capacity if the rates are within the prescribed limits. According to P. Chengal Reddy, secretary-general, Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, issues of prices and lack of storage facility need attention in 2011. Food policy analyst Devinder Sharma says farmers need to be paid direct income support. Every month a farmer must get an income package based on his land size, production level and farm location.
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THE year 2011 will be a
defining year in India’s agricultural history, says eminent
agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan. If the government does not
implement commitments made under the National Policy for Farmers laid
on the table of Parliament in November 2007, both farmers and farming
could be in trouble.
The state of agriculture
credit is poor since most of the credit goes to indirect sources like
fertiliser and other inputs and not directly to farmers. The only way
farmers can survive is to follow the recommendation of the National
Commission on Farmers on fixing the minimum support price.