The Hindu Business Line : Piecemeal solutions

The editorial ‘Piecemeal solutions’ (Business Line, March 20 2008) rightly pointed out that the mantra of self-sufficiency in essential commodities such as food and oil is the only solution to the problems of price rice and shortages in any country.

In China, one question asked in the 1970s was “Who will feed China?”. The response of the Chinese policy-makers was “We will feed ourselves”.

And the Chinese proved their efficacy in this regard increasing the oil bearing crops by 4.5 times in the period between 1978 and 2002. The Chinese achieved this by creating a High-Powered ‘Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy,’ which was made responsible for collaboration between policy-makers and researchers, by bringing in hybrid varieties, new farm tools and pesticides. They also ensured that farmers get the right price and access to varied markets by introducing town enterprises, which is essentially a direct marketing device to avoid traders’ margin and reduce transport cost between producers and the consumers via traders.

This successful Chinese model of agricultural growth can become a role model for India to follow as both China and India have similar demographical problems due to their over a billion population to feed.

This approach can act as a catalyst to increase the agricultural growth rate.

P. E. Muthu Mumbai

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