‘Economic access to food a bigger issue than availability'

Economic access to food is a bigger problem in our country than availability of food itself, observed Dr M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. Expressing concern over rising food inflation, he said that it is even worse than inflationary numbers.

“If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else can go right for this country. We are good at placing the problems under the carpet rather than addressing the same.” He was delivering a Special Address at the annual conference of top bankers, BANCON 2011, organised by the Indian Overseas Bank in association with the Indian Banks' Association at the Le Meridian here.

Urging bankers to look for options to address the problem of food inflation, he said, “we must fight this before it worsens. The problem in our country is that we take everything in a very generic term. Take vegetable for instance; if everyone were to consume vegetables, the Government would have to plan for 1.2 billion people and fodder for one billion farm animals; If planned properly, there should be enough vegetables for all to consume.”

There is an urgent need to address the feed and fodder issue before it turns uneconomical. There is no land for grazing and the concentrates are exported. Management of commodities after harvest is important. Unfortunately, farming is in a state of distress and post-harvest investment in infrastructure or storage facility is pathetic in our country.” While banks extend around Rs 3,75,0000 and more of finance support to the farm sector, much of it is not reaching the farmers (beneficiary).

There is gender discrimination in the availability of credit as well; shortage of farm labour can be tackled to some extent by farm mechanisation efforts, but lack of seed availability is another issue.

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