Representational image (Photo: PTI)
The citizens are feeling the whiplash of neglect of agriculture, especially cultivation of pulses, over decades. Never has the price of urad and tur daals, the staple of over 46 per cent of the population who are vegetarian, and others, reached Rs 200 a kg. Even now there is little or no understanding of agriculture and the reasons for shortages. For instance, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said prices would cool down since 5,000 tonnes of imported pulses have arrived and are being distributed to the states and another 3,000 tonnes are on the way. According to the Indian Pulses and Grains Association, the daily consumption of pulses is 6,000 tonnes.
It is unfortunate that the Union minister for agriculture has not been taken to task for this shortage. He, and therefore the government, had been assuring the nation repeatedly that they were prepared to handle shortages that may arise from a deficient monsoon. He has failed miserably. According to a farmer, the government was depending on imports as international prices had been lower than local prices over the last few years. But prices have shot up because of crop shortages in Myanmar and East Africa, from where India imports tur and urad. Also, the news that India, the largest producer, consumer and importer of tur and urad, is in the international market saw prices shoot up. Tur from Myanmar is now $1,000-$1,800 per tonne, and from E. Africa $1,600-$1,700 per tonne, compared to last years prices of between $750 and $800 a tonne. This has put the government in a spot and the citizens have had to pay heavily. The situation is expected to be the same in 2016 as the heat is expected to have adversely affected the rabi crop.
India, for instance, has the lowest yield per hectare at 700 kg compared to the global average of 1,200 kg. Talk about increasing the yield has been empty. Similarly, farmers have never been incentivised honestly and efficiently to increase the acreage under cultivation as the minimum support prices were never paid when prices fell due to increased production. When Mr Pranab Mukherjee was finance minister he had allocated Rs 300 crore for cultivation of pulses in 60,000 villages. Farmers produced extra crops and, for reasons of plenty, prices collapsed. But the government never paid the support price. The result was that farmers sold at a loss and the following season switched to paddy and wheat which get MSP.
The government has to change its perverse agricultural pricing policy because unless farmers get remunerative prices, there will always be shortages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should himself now focus on increasing agricultural production and consult actual farmers, and not depend on Niti Aayog and the bureaucrats, for framing agriculture polices afresh.
