The Hindu Business Line : Rice imports

This is with reference to the article “Strategies to avoid rice imports” (Business Line, February 9). The only strategy to avoid rice imports will be to augment production from now on.

The Central and State Governments must adopt a planned approach as regards production of food articles. Farmers are the focal point in this regard and, hence, the strategy must have a scheme of incentives built into it. Farmers are encouraged to produce more only when they get remunerative prices for the produce. The Government must give a thought to this immediately.

Another impediment to augmenting production is getting immediate money through sale of paddy fields by converting them into residential sites.

There must be strict rules and provisions governing land conversion. Nowadays, we see lot of conversion of paddy fields into plantations. This must stop. The government must also provide unlimited power supply for running irrigation pumpsets. Fertilisers must be made available at reasonable prices.

Supply of quality seeds, pesticides etc must also be ensured. The government must adopt a package programme covering all these to facilitate augmentation of rice production.

K. K. Ammannaya e-mail

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