RICE STRAINS

From a country where, food shortages was an accepted fact and we had to go through periods when we needed administration's permission to host a family marriage lunch and dinner, we have come far. But the sad fact remains that all are yet to travel this distance.

While the intelligentsia, discuss in forums issues that need to be done to rectify this anomaly, little gets done at ground level. From the mid seventies till now, the misuse of funds earmarked for irrigation projects is a classic case in point. Where, irrigation projects got done and rivers regulated, we see prosperity. But the millions which were wasted on the canals which never got made or got built as per intended specifications, have brought misery to many.

Today, India is at cross roads, as your editorial points out.

Given the communication access to many even in the hinterlands of the country, today the rural urban divide is visible to many and increasingly people are demanding answers. With the increased thrust being seen internationally for allocating the necessary importance to increased food production, it is time our ministries got their act together, to bring in the next major thrust..

Today, the cultivated land share is reducing by the year due to rapid industrialisation. We had still not perfected the model of transferring the correct costs for the agricultural produce, before which, this IT led industrialisation has landed on us. Our Economy managers, are now compelled to choose between segments, which they cannot. If one has to pay the correct price for the agricultural produce, we run the risk of increasing inflation and more by way of inflation expectations. But before long one has to do something about it.

We cannot subsidise imported food, but we can extend subsidy to our own agriculturists. While we are moving towards a full fledged market economy, where services are paid at cost, it is essential that the sector which gives the maximum employment opportunities in the country pay the labour minimum wages in relation to industry wages. This has to be achieved through direct subsidies.

Subsidies, however need to be made in transparent manner and cannot again be routed through free services like the Free electricity or through corporations such as subsidised prices for fertilizers. Pay a remunerative price for the farm produce, but demand remunerative price for the inputs used by the beneficiaries of the subsidy. This demands a significant change in the mind set and political will, and one only wishes that our politicians see the long term benefits in such an approach.

Development efforts, to introduce new grain strains, which reduce the water intake, cuts down sow to reap time, is resistant to known strains of diseases , has to be encouraged with state funded initiatives.

It is a mission to increase agricultural production and therefore it has to be taken up with the same zeal it demands; anything less can damage what we have gained since independence.