Now, we are importing wheat...
Naturally when your stocks are down, no government worth the name can take the risk on food security.
But the fact is that we have to remain on the commanding heights of food security with home grown food. There are two advantages in that. First, it ensures the livelihood of the farmers and secondly, global prices are volatile. If you depend on imports for food, the prices will vary.
What are the major reasons behind today's food crisis?
It is a multi-faceted problem. The major trigger was the energy price (increase). It has a downstream impact on all inputs. It has gone beyond all reasons. Some time back, the price of petroleum was $25 per barrel. Today, it is $120 per barrel.
Western agriculture is energy intensive. Once energy prices go up, all input costs go up.
Secondly, as a result of (the inrease in) energy price, industrialised countries would like to divert some of the grains for biofuels. United States in particular diverts a lot of corn, maize etc for ethanol.
Consequently, they had to divert wheat for animal feed. They are not like us; we leave our animals to fend for themselves. So, you have a cascading effect.
Above all, global warming and uncertain meteorological factors also affect the situation. Australian crops have been a failure in the last few years because of drought.
In India, we ran down our stock, allowed private players to play in the market. Thus government procurement was down and PDS could not be sustained.
Image: A farmer waits for rain on his drought-hit paddy field in Morigoan, about 50 kms from Guwahati. Photograph: Strdel/AFP/Getty Images
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