To do or not to do ... the debate continues

To do or not to do ... the debate continues
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

DEC 15: "This is the third CII session, I am attending in the last 30 days. I can tell you that it works just like the government. It collects the best talent and sees to it that it doesn't come up, that is, he is not allowed to speak.'' With this, Sharad Joshi, chairman, High Level Task Force on Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, began his oratory????

Feeling that everyone in the audience was awake now, he simply added that as he was the last speaker, `before lunch', he had to `wake up' everyone. He was speaking at the session on `Food and Agriculture' at the Infranet 2000 conference, organised jointly by the CII and IDFC in the capital. As a matter of fact, the session started a bit late and had to be hushed up due to unavailability of time.

Joshi further said, ``Agriculture has been systematically plundered in a day-lit robbery.'' Reason: ``the weird policies followed by the government for years.'' And added: ``In our country, there's neither financial ability nor political will to help the farmers.

As in the case of exports, the government's dictum is `Eat what you can and Can what you can't'. Exports in India are limited to food surplus and value-added funds. But if anyone in the agro-business can tell you that value-additions is usually value-substractions.''

On the issue of privatisation of the sector, for higher efficiency, he said, ``in India, agriculture is not in the private sector. The lands are technically owned by the government, prices controlled by the government and the output management, marketing and transportation is also by the government. The private sector initiative won't come alive till it becomes a positive proposition. Also there's a need for a feeling of participation from the farmers side.''

D S Bains, MD, MARKFED called for the need for scientific storage as 8-10 per cent of food grains worth Rs 10,237.5 crore, do not reach the consumers. There's a need to save losses and encourage exports. Also privatisation of large areas is needed to control deficit. Rajesh Srivastav, director, Rabo India Finance (P) Ltd said that the annual post-harvest losses amount to $4.5 billion. Dedicated agri-ports are needed to enable exports of both food grains and fresh produce.

Som Pal, member, Planning Commission said, ``The government policy since independence has been focussed on increasing production. However, now we are facing a situation of surplus foodgrains but due to uncompetitive pricing and poor quality government is finding it difficult to deal with the situation.'' Foodgrain production this year, he added, was around 206 million tonnes (mt). As compared to a buffer stock requirement of 22 mt, the government currently has 44 mt.