Claiming that soaring food inflation is not a matter of great concern, Planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday said the issue has been exaggerated by making all issues in the country revolve around the urban middle class while overlooking the interests of farmers.

Suggesting that agriculture growth will always be lower than manufacturing and services sector, Ahluwalia pointed out that it was time that the farming community pooled efforts with the government to take the sector forward. The growth in services and manufacturing sectors “give opportunity to the farmers to extract higher prices, as demand for farm produces will always be on the higher side”, Ahluwalia said while addressing the Economic Editors’ Conference here.

Describing the theory that “only middle-men benefited from rising food prices”, as “a trap” he questioned that despite quantum jump in minimum support price (MSP) of wheat and paddy by the UPA ever since it came to power “why haven’t the farmers benefited.” He, however, said the plan panel was indeed concerned on the rise in food prices which he attributed to speculative tendencies and exuded confidence that with an anticipated good rabi output, the pressure on food prices would ease. Ahluwalia cited discrepancies in WPI and CPI and compared it with the data in the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), which he said revealed that the inflation inferred by the CPI “was on the higher side.”

Saying that the agriculture sector would grow not more than 4 per cent this year, he expressed concern that the sector was not growing as it should have been. He, however, pointed out that this would not pose any problem on food supplies.