Bad food management flayed

Poor food management policies and slow growth in agriculture sectors have led to high inflation rate, said the survey.

Expressing concern over sluggish performance of agriculture sector the survey said that there is an urgent need for serious policy initiatives to reach the four per cent target.
Growth of farm sector, which is still the mainstay of Indian population, is said to decline by 0.2 per cent in 2009-10.

 “It could be argued that the excessive hype about Kharif crop failure, not taking into account the comfortable situation in respect of food crop and the possibility of an improved rabi crop, may have exacerbated inflationary expectations encouraging hoarding and resulting in higher inflation in food items”, says the survey.

Since farm productivity is not showing desirable growth there is an urgent need to focus on research as well as better agricultural practices to ensure increase in productivity levels in the shortest possible time, it said.

However, according to the Central Statistical Organisation data quoted by the Survey, private sector investment in “agriculture and allied sectors” has increased to Rs 1,14,145 crore in 2008-09 from Rs 86,967 crore in FY’08. But the share of public sector investment in “agriculture and allied sector” has declined to 17.6 per cent from 20.9 per cent in the period under review.

Renewed attention needs to be paid on improving farm output and yield, better utilisation of agricultural inputs, proper marketing infrastructure and stepping up of investment in agriculture, the report said, adding that comprehensive and coordinated efforts were required to address these challenges.

Although the Survey acknowledged that record procurement of wheat and rice has helped in building up buffer stock and strategic reserve, it pointed out that there is a huge cost involved in the process which is met through food subsidy.