Agricultural economists and farm sector stakeholders on Wednesday pitched for greater investment in agriculture, rationalisation of subsidies, foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and major reforms in the supply-chain for reining in food inflation while achieving the annual 4 per cent growth target fixed for the sector.
The forum for voicing farm sector concerns was the first in the series of pre-Budget consultations that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had with agriculturalists here in preparation of the Union budget for 2012-13. At the meeting, while highlighting the various economic challenges that lie ahead, Mr. Mukherjee sought suggestions from representatives on ways to enhance productivity, reforms that need to be brought in agricultural pricing, measures that are required to meet food security needs and deal with malnutrition and issues pertaining to procurement, marketing, cold chains and maintenance of buffer stocks.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, renowned farm economist and Commission of Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) Chairman Ashok Gulati pointed out that actual achievement of an annual farm growth target of 4 per cent would necessitate increased investment and one of the ways of attracting more funds into the sector would be rationalisation of subsidies.
“With the current level of investment, 4 per cent growth in the farm sector cannot be achieved. “It is clear that we have to increase investment from private and public sectors,” he said.
Subsidies
Dr. Gulati noted that currently, while the annual public investment in agriculture did not add up to more than Rs.30,000 crore, subsidies on various inputs such as fertilizers, power, irrigation and credit account for about Rs.2 lakh crore. Pointing to the need for a change in the spending pattern through rationalisation of subsidies, he said: “The growth in the [farm] sector can be achieved when the investments are at 80 per cent and subsidies at 20 per cent.”
Besides Dr. Gulati, representing other farm sector stakeholders, among others, were P. Chengal Reddy (Consortium of Indian Farmers Association), Dinesh (National Cooperative Union of India), B.S. Dhillon, (Vice Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University), Amita Shah (Gujarat Institute of Development Research), K. V. Prabhu (Indian Agriculture Research Institute) and Ramesh Chand (National Centre for Agri Economics and Policy Research).
