Low farm output likely to lift India’s foodgrain imports

NEW DELHI: India may soon become a major foodgrain importer if the government does not initiate immediate steps to boost farm output. “If we take today’s level, then that situation will emerge by ’20 where India will be a major importer,” Union agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday while addressing queries at the Economic Editors’ Conference.

“As the present state of agriculture performance is an area of deep concern, prime minister Manmohan Singh has stressed the need for injecting fresh dynamism in agriculture in order to achieve the overall growth profile,” Mr Pawar said. This means that the government’s earlier strategy to encourage diversification from wheat and rice has to change.

The ministry has already prepared an action plan by way of which it will target 50% of the area under wheat for enhancing productivity and will identify specific districts in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.

In rice also the government plans to tackle the problem by raising productivity levels, the minister said. A paradigm shift in rice is required as the focus needs to be raising the productivity per unit of water and not per unit of land due to water shortages.

The minister unveiled a multi-pronged strategy focusing on four major problems faced in agriculture. These include public investment and credit deficit, infrastructure deficit, market economy deficit and knowledge deficit.

“The prime minister has made it clear that agriculture must be one of the central elements in planning efforts in the 11th Five-Year Plan,” Mr Pawar said. This, he said, was to bridge the rural-urban divide to usher in a more rural prosperity.
On the rise in wheat prices, the minister said the situation might remain uncertain till the arrival of the next crop, although large import consignments had arrived.

“Already 26 lakh tonnes of rice has landed on the shores of India, while another 14 lakh tonnes is expected,” he added. To lower prices of wheat and pulses imports have been allowed at zero-duty by the government.

He said farmers’ interest cannot be sacrificed and wheat growers should get high remunerative prices.