The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : “State can become ‘Annapoorna’ of India”

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Friday, Jun 06, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

“State can become ‘Annapoorna’ of India”

RBI Governor delivers convocation address at ANGRAU

— PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

WELL DONE: Gold medallists congratulate each other after receiving their degrees at the convocation of ANGRAU on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: Reserve Bank of India Governor Y.V. Reddy on Thursday called for augmenting food supplies within the country since marginal requirements or even a perception of shortfalls in domestic supply in “our economy” could have significant influence on world prices.

Delivering the 40th annual convocation address at Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University here, he said “as we have half the work force depending on agriculture, and as we have scope for increasing productivity in agriculture, there is no reason why we cannot ensure food security for our country, at a minimum.

Indeed, India can become the ‘Annapoorna’ for the world and I feel that Andhra Pradesh can become the ‘Annapoorna’ for India”.

Only a fraction

He said the increase in food prices in India in recent months had been only a fraction of that observed in many other countries. In particular, the global prices of wheat and rice had almost doubled between January and April 2008, while in India the increase had been far less than one-tenth of that.

“In a sense, this vindicates the long-standing public policy of emphasis on a degree of food security in our country, especially due to the vulnerability of large segments of the population”.

Dr. Reddy said the current outlook appears positive for wheat with significant improvement in procurement. With regard to rice production, some turnaround was observed since 2005-06. The prices of edible oil increased sharply in 2006-07 and spiked during 2007-08. He said prospects for sugar appear bright for the current year.

Governor N.D.Tiwari, who is the Chancellor of the university, presided.

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