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Multiple reasons have been cited for the spiralling food price rise. Of these, a few need to be tackled by policy-makers on a war footing basis.

The planned increase in agricultural production shall meet the needs of the increasing population.

This can be achieved by careful planning and timely implementation of irrigation projects, making available, at the retail level, improved seeds, tested soil enriching techniques to improve the yield and, above all, easy rural credit with minimal collateral to the rural agriculturist.

In the absence of such a coordinated approach, there will be gaps that will leave us exasperating at the slow agricultural growth rate. On the other hand, the shift to bio-fuels in the developed economies is a self-centred approach of the developed economy.

Given the depth of the scientific community and the financial resources available within the country, it is really surprising that a concerted approach is not being taken by the policy-makers to solve this fundamental problem.

V. Balakrishnan e-mail

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