The Hindu Business Line : Farm Ministry says no shortage of cereals

At a time when the entire nation is concerned about shortages of essential food items and soaring prices with the Centre desperately fighting to augment supplies through imports, the Ministry of Agriculture believes there is no shortage of cereals in the country and that production is more than consumption.

In the last session of Parliament held in May, in reply to a question on whether the demand-supply gap of cereals in the country was widening, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture said production was more than the demand during the three years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06.

The Minister presented the following table to the Rajya Sabha.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the table contains numbers based on the National Sample Survey Organisation's 60th round (2004) Consumer Expenditure Survey showing the assessed demand (consumption requirement of cereals for the country including seed, feed and wastage) vis-à-vis the supply (domestic production) of cereals.

Obviously, the reality is completely divorced from what the Government wants the Members of Parliament to believe or the survey numbers suggest. Indeed, the shortage is real. The consequence of the shortage is there for all to see in the form of high prices.

It is for this reason that the Union Government has been forced to liberalise import of wheat with a nominal Customs duty and withdraw the 10 per cent duty on imported pulses.