Budgeting for nutrition security

Budget 2011-12 is sure to be hailed by the corporate world for being supportive of industry and the services sectors, and for helping attract more FII fund flows into the stock market; but it has hardly enthused the farm sector. At a time when the country is faced with the persisting challenges of unabated food inflation and pervasive malnutrition, one would have expected the Budget to unveil concrete proposals to make food accessible and affordable, especially for the poor, and to ensure delivery of nutritious foods to fight pervasive malnutrition. Though 20 paragraphs are devoted to agriculture, and cover various development schemes relating to rice, pulses, vegetables, millets, animal protein and fodder, they will, it seems, have little short-term impact on output or prices. So, do not expect any real relief from food inflation in the near term.

The Budgetary allocation for specific schemes to augment production and productivity in major field crops ought to have been stepped up substantially. For 60,000 villages, what can Rs 300 crore achieve? Every village gets but a princely sum of Rs 50,000. Mr Pranab Mukherjee did concede that food inflation remained a matter of concern and that the farm sector must come up with a better supply response to rising demand. But he should know that because the structural issues in agriculture have been neglected for long, the supply response to prices is extremely limited. He went so far as to warn that the big difference between wholesale and retail prices (of essential commodities) was not acceptable, and that serious flaws have been exposed in the supply chain by the recent unacceptable spurt in fruit and vegetable prices. Yet, responsibility for addressing these problematic issues lies as much with the State governments as with the Centre.

The Centre would do well urgently to convene a meeting of State Chief Ministers and come up a with a national — though regionally differentiated — plan for strengthening market linkages and improving the supply chain for farm produce. Significant investments can flow from the private sector if policies incentivise the establishment of backward linkages for processors. The issue of nutrition security is a lot more serious than many know or would care to admit. The time-tested way to deliver nutritious food is by supplying pulses (for protein) and edible oil (for calories) — in addition to rice, wheat and sugar — through the public distribution system. Importantly, leveraging the farm sector's strengths to deliver nutrition and health to several hundred millions among the underprivileged ought to become a national mission — one that will also help generate incomes for growers and create employment in the downstream processing sector.

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