The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘Record buffer stock of food grains’

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Sunday, May 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘Record buffer stock of food grains’

Special Correspondent

24 million tonnes of rice procurement from September to April

— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Honoured: Minister for Finance K. Rosaiah felicitating Chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices S. Mahendradev at the Centre for Economics and Social Studies in Hyderabad on Saturday.

HYDERABAD: S. Mahendradev, the new Chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), said here that India need not have food security concerns for a couple of years as it had built up a record buffer stock of 45 million tonnes of rice and wheat during the latest procurement period.

The procurement of rice from September last to April was 24 million tonnes while wheat was already 20 million tonnes in the last two months and was likely to go up to 21 million tonnes by the end of the season in a few weeks, he said at a function to felicitate him at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) of which he was the Director till recently.

The function was organised by Jana Chaitanya Vedika and Federation of Farmers Associations.

Dr. Mahendradev lauded India’s food grain production programme against a ‘silent tsunami’ that threatened to blow up the global food crisis which had set in last year. Hike in oil prices, neglect of agriculture, shrinkage in cultivable area and speculation in commodities market were causes of the crisis.

He added that the country should be more concerned about how to increase returns for farmers and decrease prices for consumers.

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah regretted the lack of a scientific approach to fixation of agricultural prices.

On the other hand, he said the pricing of industrial products was perfect as it took into account cost of raw material, taxes and profit margins.

No such system could be evolved in the case of agriculture as the cost of land an acre varied in different cases.

Global warming

Agriculture Minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao said that the decrease in public investment, climate change and global warming adversely affected crop production and led to lower income to farmers.

Tellugu Desam Party Member of Parliament M. V. Mysoora Reddy also spoke.

Former Chief Secretary B.P.R. Vithal said Dr. Mahendradev was the second Director of CESS to head a national commission.

Another Director Radhakrishna was the chairman of Rural Indebtedness Commission.

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