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Why India is paying heavily for food

The concluding years of this decade will be remembered in history as those of suffering and awakening.

Smita Mishra
The concluding years of this decade will be remembered in history as those of suffering and awakening. While 2008 witnessed country after country being brutally affected with the devastating touch of the economic downturn, thus exposing the worst facet of globalization, 2009 wrenched with the blow of a predicament that we thought we had overcome long back. India with all the developments and achievements of the 21st century has slipped back in time and is experiencing the same food crisis that it had to handle immediately after independence. But the situation now is more critical, as earlier it had to fend for a mere 380 million and now it had to cater to the demands of a teeming 1.2 billion. No wonder we are in the most troubled times. We had faced a similar situation immediately after independence. World war, partition and a country with millions of poor and practically no infrastructure was what we had inherited. Our governments prioritized food and development. Hence the first five year plan zeroed on agriculture, the second on industry. The third, fourth and fifth concentrated on farming, fertilizers, unemployment and poverty alleviation. And in the process was achieved the much eulogized green revolution, with the unending claims by subsequent governments of having attained self sufficiency in food. But the era of food security seems to have had ended. Sugar prices doubled, pulses started competing with oilseeds which in turn became even dearer, and to make things worse even food grains became painfully expensive. Initially it was looked upon merely as a temporary aberration when suddenly it was realized that this upward expanding trend had become an irreversible procedure. Food prices in India have created the same panic that the escalating oil prices had created a couple of months ago. The prices have jumped by as high as 50%, making half of the commodities unaffordable by the poor who account for about a third of India’s population. But what has created such a somber situation in a country reputed to be among the largest exporters of food products. The simplest reason for this is the inequality in demand and supply ratio. While the demand for food has been growing due to rise in population and increasing living standard of a sizable population, the production has not been able to match the pace. Also, though unbelievable but true, is increase in demand for meat by the affluent section which has led to a sharp increase in need to feed livestock. India, known for its massive buffer stocks started importing wheat two years ago and has turned into world’s second largest importer of edible oil. Obviously when countries like India turn into importers, world prices soar. In fact the moment India announced it would import sugar, world prices shot by 50%. It is indeed an irony that India, known to be world’s second largest exporter of sugar is now depending on other nations to meet is requirements. It won’t be too far fetched to assert that India is witnessing the curse of globalization. The disintegration of Indian agriculture began in 1991, when with the new economic reforms development pyramid and all investments and attention shifted to manufacturing and services. In the hype and hoopla of globalization, marketisation and capitalization, agriculture received royal indifference. The state support to agriculture including irrigation was slashed, price supports were reduced, and Public Distribution System which insured cheaper access of food by poor was drastically curtailed. The repercussion has been a veritable disaster. Surveys have shown that calorie consumption has come down drastically since 1991. With the implementation of the New Economic Reforms, a number of SEZs began to be constructed on fertile agricultural lands. This is an explosive issue in the country as acreage under paddy reduces by the day due to lack of Monsoon. The solution is simple, but will take years to show its impact. The foremost necessity is more investment in agriculture to increase crop productivity. As land holdings in India are largely fragmented and the ownership rights dwell with small individual cultivators, reaching out to farmers, supplying improved varieties of seeds, fertilizers and other materials will boost cultivation. Emphasis on organic farming would also help tremendously as it will free agricultures from dependence on oil. If farmers have been committing suicides and if we have turned into food importers in the world market, it is because of our own indifference towards agriculture. It is not shameful to be an agricultural country. In the mad race of aping the west, India forgot that it is ignoring a sector on which depends the life of its billions. And is now paying a heavy price for it!