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This has reference to your editorial “Grains of trouble” (Business Line, December 10).

It is indeed unfortunate that even after four decades of planning the agrarian India has not achieved self-sufficiency even in agricultural goods.

The fact that the nation has to bank upon countries like Russia, Australia and Canada to meet our requirements of wheat, oilseeds and pulses, smacks of our poor agricultural planning and implementation.

The oft-repeated problems haunting the agricultural sector are, of course, excessive dependence on monsoon, lack of irrigation facilities, banking on unorganised money market and unfair prices for the produce.

But the question remains: What prevented the Central and the State governments from maintaining huge buffer stocks of agricultural goods and releasing them at the time of scarcity?

There were bumper seasons for some goods (wheat, in particular) in the past and had the country created buffer stock of wheat, we would not have been forced to land in the dismal situation we are in at present.

Hence, most of the social and economic problems that country faces today are not due to unforeseen factors but our poor foresight and imprudence.

S. Ramakrishnasayee Ranipet

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