The Hindu Business Line : Chimera of food security

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs’ approval of a Centrally-sponsored National Food Security Mission (NFSM) is clear evidence of the policymakers’ concern over rising foodgrains prices caused by soaring demand and a virtually stagnant output. Quite apart from the worrisome fact of farm output growth being stuck at a paltry 2.3 per cent over ten long years, the alarming reality is that per capita foodgrains availability today is lower than it was even 10 years ago. The skew in foodgrains consumption has remained unaddressed despite widespread malnutrition or under-nutrition, especially among women and children in the rural areas.

For long have ministers and officials talked about the need to achieve 4 per cent a year farm output growth; yet, on the ground, there is little evidence of a well-designed strategy backed by action. Worse, none of the stakeholders in the foodgrains sector — growers, processors, traders or consumers — is happy with the current mess the sector is in. Each one has a complaint that relates to inputs, prices, markets or trade restrictions. Of course, the one set of people happy with lack of progress in Indian agriculture are overseas suppliers of foodgrains (pulses, wheat). In this suffocating atmosphere the NFSM may come as a breath of fresh air. Agricultural output, foodgrains in particular, has to be increased significantly to meet a large part of the rapidly expanding demand for food, driven by rising incomes and demographic pressure. But, by themselves, the targets for enhancing production of rice by 10 million tonnes, wheat by 8 million tonnes and pulses by 2 million tonnes over the next five-years — to coincide with the ongoing Eleventh Five Year Plan — are far from adequate to meet the potential growth in internal needs. On closer scrutiny, these targets are nothing but the production growth targets recommended by the Planning Commission in the Eleventh Plan. Indeed, there is no guarantee that even these modest targets will be achieved. While such programmes may bring some relief to beleaguered farmers in districts selected for launching the NFSM, they offer no guarantee that the country will become food-secure anytime soon, primarily because the challenges in the farm sector — fragmented landholdings, low level of input usage, rainfed farming and lack of rural infrastructure, to list a few — have to be addressed urgently. Agriculture comprises several sub-systems; a holistic approach alone will deliver results. In the scheme of things, States will have to play an active role in supporting agricultural development as, otherwise, the efforts of the Centre would be frustrated.

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