Opinion - Letters to the Editor

No magic solutions

Sir, — Vandana Shiva's ``Direct payments will increase farm debt'' (April 22) has taken a rather simplistic view of the agricultural problems of the country. Though India has become self-sufficient in food production, issues connected with the prices to be given to the farmers and fixing the price of food items to be distributed through the PDS raise a host of extremely complicated problems for the Government as well as the consumers. And these problems have defied easy solution, as the expenses involved are exorbitant.

Some of the problems are related to the remunerative price for farmers, taking into consideration the cost of inputs; the huge cost involved in storing stocks in FCI godowns; and the exorbitant expenditure involved in the subsidy for the foodgrains distributed through the PDS. There is no magic solution to cut the expenditure involved in any of these items without alienating a sizeable section of the population. Most of the developed countries face only one problem, viz. the amount of subsidy to be given to the farmers.

The ultimate solution lies in increasing the productivity in agriculture. Another solution lies in increasing the export of foodgrains and changing the pattern of agricultural production.

George Varghese,
Nedungadappally, Kerala

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