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Wheat import raises doubts about self-sufficiency, says NCAER

Special Correspondent

New Delhi : The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has said that the situation on the agriculture front does not reflect very well on the overall food economy management.

It has pointed out thatthe resumption of wheat import after six years has raised doubts about the country's self-sufficiency.

Its monthly report stated that four years ago the godowns of the Food Corporation of India were overflowing with stocks touching 63 million tonnes. Increased off-take of cereals from the Public Distribution System (PDS), launch of welfare schemes and fall in wheat procurement led to a significant decline in wheat stocks to two million tonnes on April 1 this year against the buffer stock norm of four million tonnes.

``Corrective steps''

The NCAER underlined the need for "urgent corrective steps" to deal with the deceleration in agriculture productivity growth and that of cereals, in particular. "That is especially so if India wants to meet its foodgrain needs despite constraints on increasing cultivable area," it said. While erratic distribution of rainfall during the recent years might be one of the factors for the dull performance to some extent, larger issues were related to the slowdown in technological development, ecological degradation and proper investments in the sector.

Cropping pattern

The NCAER attributed the shift in cropping pattern, away from coarse cereals towards commercial crops, change in consumer preference and tardy process of technological change in pulses and coarse cereals as the reasons for marginal improvement in production in the last two decades.

The country's current food sector problem could be attributed to stagnation in production of superior cereals, allied with mismanagement of food economy. It pointed to the gap between the official output targets and actual foodgrain output which has been increasing from the Ninth Plan.

The think tank suggested the need to reform the process of procurement, holding of stocks and running of the public distribution system. Involvement of private trade and a more responsive policy regime were the two most essential ingredients of future food policy reforms, it said.

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