NEW DELHI: Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday warned of a crisis in the food sector if farm production and productivity were not enhanced and the approach to research was not changed.
Referring to the quality of imported wheat, he said the availability of wheat in the world that matched Indian habits was limited. Only Australia has that kind of wheat but even that country had faced drought in the last two years. Russia, the other country from whom India imports, has imposed trade barriers to virtually ban wheat export. “The wheat available from Hungary, Ukraine and Eastern European countries is the red grain, which is not liked in India. It is a question of our habits. Therefore, there is no way out but to improve productivity in India.”
In response to the complaints of poor quality of imported wheat made by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Mr. Pawar said these two States could go in for decentralised procurement for the Public Distribution System, as well as for wheat import on their own. “The government will reimburse them the difference in price between the minimum support price and the imported wheat.”
Mr Pawar said although India was not expecting to import rice, importable rice was only available in two countries of the world — Vietnam and Thailand.
“We are not importing rice, but we have to be careful. The production in Vietnam and Thailand has also dropped and the former has also imposed trade barriers to ban export.”
Emphasising the need for development of new crop varieties, he said wheat production, which grew after the Green revolution, had been in the range of 68 to 75 million tonnes in recent years, with an average yield of 11 to 14 million tonnes, while that in oilseeds has touched 25 million tonnes, which is well below the domestic demand. A situation of mismatch between demand and supply is emerging in wheat also. Imports crucial
Mr Pawar said that with no varietal breakthroughs in the case of pulses and oilseeds, the country has to meet its demands through imports. “The cost of pulses imports was Rs 3,851 crore, while that of edible oils was Rs 9,416 in 2006-07. Some of the stakeholders have begun to question the efficacy and relevance of agricultural research in such a scenario,” he told the Vice-Chancellors Conference here.
