The Hindu : 'India must become an agriculture exporting country'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 24, 2003

National

National

'India must become an agriculture exporting country'

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi Aug. 22. The "real second farm revolution" that the country needed to work towards would be for India to become an agriculture exporting country within the next three to five years, the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, said here today.

"Indian farmers have a highly sharpened sense of profit and benefit because of centuries of experience and cynicism of empty promises. Therefore, the farmers do not have to be flooded with propaganda but to be provided — with credit, information technology, marketing facilities and infrastructure," he said.

He was releasing a book, `Towards A Food Secure India: Issues and Policies' brought out by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, and the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad.

The book has significant contributions from C.H. Hanumantha Rao, Y.K. Alagh and S. Mahendra Dev among other eminent economists.

Referring to the huge stocks of foodgrains as "obscenity of waste in the face of want", Mr. Singh said food security had three essentials: that of `quantity', `distribution' and `quality' (the nutritional value of what was available).

He asked whether the issue of `quantity' was not on account of the inefficiency of the collection system (procurement) and of the mechanism of minimum support price (MSP).

The spread or distribution was for want of an effective machinery for delivery, while the lack of quality was for lack of proper management.

The Minister said that in the context of the forthcoming World Trade Organisation negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture, Indian negotiators need not be "intimidated'' and should unhesitatingly take the stand that for India, agriculture was a way of life and not a corporate activity.

"It is a reality that land holding is a factor of social recognition in rural India."

Calling for a second revolution, eminent economist and the Chairman of the Institute of Economic growth, Prof. Hanumantha Rao said one of the greatest dilemmas facing the country was the emerging foodgrain surplus and the persistence of chronic hunger.

The basic problem was to raise the purchasing power of the 25 to 30 per cent of the poor amongst the Below Poverty line Population and to evolve strategies for employment generation in rural areas.

The Chairman of the Institute for Human Development, Y.K. Alagh, also emphasised the need for income generation and poverty removal.

He said India must stand up to the "unequal nature of global trade pressure" at the Cancun WTO negotiations and play a leadership role in the third world arguing for global reform.

Outlining the highpoints of the book, the Director of Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Prof. Mahendra Dev said it was a "comprehensive analysis of the food security situation", the economic liberalisation and its impact, the WTO, the phenomenon of 60 million stocks of foodgrain, the right to food campaign, the Supreme Court order on mid-day meals and the millennium development goals.

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