The Hindu Business Line : Global problems and local protests

The current food imbroglio has not arisen due to excessive consumption by India or China. What is obvious is that it is a global problem calling for a global solution and not for protest actions holding up Government offices, Parliament and the Legislature, points out S. VENKITARAMANAN.

Indian political activists are staging Canute-like protest games against the alleged failure of the Government of India to control food prices. But the UN Secretary-General, who should know better, has, on his part, set up a Global Task Force under a former British diplomat to assess the global problem of rising food prices and suggest solutions.

This will include a rethink on subsidies, bio-fuels and export restrictions. It is a pity that a global problem acknowledged as such by the international statesman is being attempted to be blown up as a political failure on the part of the Government of India. The UN Task Force is expected to come up with some solutions and present the same at a meeting of the UN in June or July. Whether the global problem can be fixed in keeping with the diverse interests of the producers and consumers is, of course, doubtful. In a characteristically flat-footed fashion, the US President, Mr George Bush, had started a controversy on this subject.

He stated that the food price inflation is due to excessive consumption by India and China. Unfortunately for the President, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN came up with figures very soon thereafter, which showed that the consumption of food-grains in the US has increased far more sharply in the recent period than in India and China.

President Bush was wrong on basic facts and blaming the developing countries for what is primarily increasing consumption by the richer countries, such as the US. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the prices of wheat and rice, as well as corn, have risen very sharply in the recent period. This is partly due to adverse weather conditions and partly due to rise in the price of crude, which feeds into the prices of fertilisers and pesticides.

As a result of all these, prices have risen to astronomically high levels leading to food riots in countries such as the Philippines. One country, Haiti, even had a change of Prime Minister.

These have not solved problems. The situation is, indeed, grave. While our protesters are crying hoarse about local Government’s failures, global statesmen are bothered about what is to be done at an international level.

Grappling with famine

This brings to mind memories of the 1960s when, following the onset of famine conditions in Bihar and Northern India, India was forced to request the US for PL-480 shipments in a larger measure than before.

If I recall right, we wanted 10 million tonnes of wheat and that too in a short period of time. I was then working with C. Subramaniam, former Food Minister, who made a special visit to the US to persuade the US Government under President Lyndon Johnson to expedite its shipment.

It must be remembered that the US had then a large wheat surplus and Public Law 480 was a means of using that surplus for giving free food aid to distressed countries.

I also recall that at that time the Communists of India were vociferous in their protest against obtaining the grant-in-aid.

They had, however, no alternative to offer since Russian agriculture was at that time not robust enough to meet Russian needs, let alone supply India’s needs. The then US Secretary for Agriculture, Mr Orvelle Freeman, played an important role for utilising the food aid as a means of encouraging necessary policy changes in India.

There was admittedly a need for liberalising markets for Indian agriculture and I recall that C. Subramaniam introduced a number of measures at that time, including the policy of remunerative prices for farmers and setting up an Agricultural Prices Commission.

Second Green Revolution

He also set up a Food Corporation of India for obtaining and storing a buffer stock. It was at that time that the seeds of the Green Revolution were planted, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Agricultural Scientist Dr M.S. Swaminathan and B. Sivaraman, who was then Union Secretary for Agriculture.

The Green Revolution thus started in India and became a model for the rest of the world. India was able to overcome the ignominy of dependence on external sources of cereals for a long time.The reasons why India has had to import food-grains in recent years may perhaps be traced to the comparative neglect of agriculture and related investments. But that is a problem that can be solved.

The solution will, indeed, take time and in the meantime, India will have to rely on imports. These being at high prices naturally leads to increase in demands for higher support prices by Indian farmers.

What is more relevant is to formulate policies for encouraging and ensuring food self-sufficiency because that is perhaps the best recipe for ensuring rural prosperity.

This will also mean a second Green Revolution, perhaps including genetic modification of important cereal crops.

China has shown the way for introducing and popularising hybrid rice variety. India should not lag behind. There has been, of course, a movement towards encouraging organic agriculture, including use of bio-mass fertilisers and better use of soil and water. The two methods are not contradictory. We should try organic farming to attain increased yields.

To obtain faster growth in food production, genetic modification seems to be unavoidable.

Resistance to GM

India has to overcome the resistance to the introduction of GM crops in order to attain food security in the shortest possible time.

Various measures have been contemplated by global statesmen, including Mr Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain, and Mr Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, for tackling the slow growth of food production in the world.

They are thinking of special programmes to assist the rural countries to increase food production. These measures will also take time. But I think the concept of a World Food Bank, which has been propounded by the economist, Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Columbia University, is definitely worth considering. One aspect in the current food imbroglio is interesting. Japan has been keeping millions of tonnes of rice in its godowns in order to prevent a fall in rice prices. Japan’s domestic producers fear competition from imports.

It is obvious that in the present context persuading Japan to release a part of its rice stock in the international market will be a useful measure to reduce prices. This is a measure that requires persuasion at global level.

All this is a far cry from the days of PL-480 when the US was consciously promoting wheat consumption in countries such as India. The present situation has not obviously arisen due to excessive consumption by India or China, as alleged by Mr George Bush.

What is obvious is that it is a global problem calling for a global solution and not for protest actions holding up Government offices, Parliament and the Legislature.

Global problems have to be handled by a series of concerted measures, both local and global. Protests that stop the functioning of Parliament and Government cannot be effective in the context of global efforts.

When will our politicians learn that economics is too important to be dealt with by polities alone?