The Hindu Business Line : Not a global problem

While “Global problems and local protests” (Business Line, May 19) makes the case that the food problem is a global problem, there is also another side to the situation of dwindling stocks.

Food shortage may be a global phenomenon, but the Indian food problem is largely of Indian origin because of the neglect of agriculture. Since 1991, agriculture has become unviable and total area under cultivation has been systematically reduced. The decrease in subsidies on agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and so on, made farming unremunerative and the farmer indebted. We should encourage farmers to produce more, giving them highly subsidised agricultural inputs and remunerative support prices for their produce. Credit should be granted at 4 per cent interest rate. Use of agricultural lands for other purposes should be strictly banned. For these, local protests and awareness drives are, indeed, necessary.

Storage facilities should be increased to maintain buffer stocks in safe and hygienic conditions. The PDS system needs to be strengthened which will control open-market prices of food grains. We should also adopt the System of Rice Intensification (SIR) developed by Father Henre de Laulanie which will increase per-hectare rice yield.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu Alappuzha

More Stories on : Letters | Foods & Food Processing

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
The road to AS 32

Moving closer to IFRS

Dealing with futures

Taxing times for money changers

Laws of inheritance: The will to settle

Power shift in Russia’s democracy

GM brinjal

Wheat purchases

Not a global problem