Monsoon readiness makes food security top Agriculture Ministry agenda

NEW DELHI: Cabinet secretary Ajit Seth will review the country’s preparedness for a poor monsoon during the crucial khari planting season as well as other issues relating to India’s food security at a meeting with top bureaucrats today.

The issues are likely to be on top of the new government’s agenda as weak rainfall can hit farm output and increase food inflation, which had shot up to 20% in 2009 after a drought and remained stubbornly high after that.
Agricultural secretary Ashish Bahuguna and Anup Kumar Thakur , secretary department of animal husbandry, are expected to attend the meeting.

Sources said officials have prepared presentations on drought preparedness in the wake of forecasts that El Nino would disrupt the monsoon, and another on the future growth of agriculture sector in the country. The IMD has already forecast a weak monsoon and said it is closely monitoring the El Nino phenomenon, which is associated with changes in surface temperature in the equatorial Pacific that lead to floods or drought in different parts of the world.

"The government’s top priority as it takes over is to ensure that prices of essential commodity remain stable. In this regard the agriculture ministry will have to work to make sure that food production is not badly hit by the weather as monsoon rainfall is likely to be weak this year," said a government official.