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The greatest challenge in implementing the common and differentiated food entitlements under the Food Security Bill will be the production of adequate quantities of staple grain. The untapped production reservoir, even with the technologies now on the shelf, is high in irrigated and rain-fed farming systems. Doubling the production of rice and wheat in eastern India and pulses and oilseeds in rain-fed areas is feasible in this decade.
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The 2010-11 budget indicates measures to initiate a “bridge the yield gap movement” in eastern India, and stimulate a pulses and oilseeds revolution through the organisation of 60,000 Pulses and Oilseed Villages. Here, concurrent attention will be given to conservation of soil and water, cultivation of the best available strains, consumption of local grain and commerce at prices that are fair to farmers. National and State efforts should be supported at the local body level to build a community food security system involving seed, grain and water banks. The National Commission on Farmers (2006), in its recommendations on building a sustainable national nutrition security system, calculated that about 60 million tonnes of foodgrains will be needed to sustain a universal PDS. The differentiated entitlements for BPL families for foodgrains at low cost will involve only additional cash expenditure. The Hindu 280310
from: K.R.S.Reddy
Posted on: Mar 29, 2010 at 18:53 IST
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| All discussions and debates are centering on demand side of the issue. First efforts should be directed to improve supply of food grains. Farming is a high risk and losing proposition with stagnant yields and unremunerative farm produce prices not even covering all the costs ,youth not willing to do farming occupation and labor becoming costly and unavailable. It is the farmer who is subsidizing the consumers and this is going on since long. But this exploitation of farmers' toil can not be the solution in an egalitarian society. Therefore food grain production should be made remunerative and then attempt at food security. When the farmers' livelihood is at stake, how can there be food security? |
Staff costs of FCI up by Rs 530 crore, Shown as Food subsidy
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Staff costs of FCI have increased by 39% from Rs 1327 crore in 2007-08 to Rs1,858 crore in 2008-09 and this extra cost of Rs 530 crore is borne by Govt. and shown as part of food subsidy with no extra benefit accruing to the PDS.
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NOTE: A question arises whether this should be treated as part of food subsidy or subsidy to the staff of FCI.
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Food grains supplied at 70%-86% subsidy for Poor
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| The country’s budgeted subsidies for the 2010-11 financial year have been estimated to be over Rs 1 lakh crore. CIP, the price at which it sells to targeted consumers, has not been revised since 2002. As a result of which, food subsidies, which are almost half of the government’s total subsidy bill, have swelled from Rs 17,499 crore in 2001-02 to the budget estimate of almost Rs 55,578 crore in 10-11. |
At the current CIP level, government gives a subsidy of 86.7% for wheat sold under antodaya anna yoyana (AAY) through the public distribution system, a subsidy of 72.4% for wheat distributed to below poverty line families and of 59.5% for that distributed to above poverty line families. Similarly, for rice, government’s subsidy for distribution under AAY as of 2009-10 is around 84.2%, for BPL families 70.2% and that for APL families the subsidy for rice distribution is almost 56.2%.
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| “PDS reeks of corruption, leakages and wastages” |
The existing PDS is wholly unfit for serving the objective of food security for all. Besides being woefully inefficient, it reeks of corruption, leakages and wastages. A Supreme Court-appointed Central Vigilance Committee has said so after scrutinising its operation in different states. While in some states the PDS has wholly collapsed, in others it is inefficient and corrupt, resulting in large-scale diversion and black-marketing of highly subsidised grains.
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There is also the issue of a discord between the Centre and the states over the number of BPL people to be covered under the new system. Going by the Centre’s (read the Planning Commission’s) reckoning, the BPL households in the country number around 60-odd million. But the states, put together, have already issued over 80 million BPL ration cards even while leaving a sizable chunk of the genuine poor without an access to the PDS.
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Horticulture contributes to 30% of Agri GDP using 10% of land
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Horticultural crops have been receiving attention only since the 1980s. Yet, they now contribute nearly 30 per cent to the country’s agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) from merely 10 per cent of agricultural land under them.
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Loan relief for farmers
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| The Government has allowed banks to receive less than 75 per cent of the farm loan repayment under the one-time settlement under the Agriculture Debt Relief Scheme, provided the banks are willing to bear the difference. The Government would only pay 25 per cent of the eligible amount for debt relief, a release issued by RBI said. Where farmers have given an undertaking that they will pay their share under the one-time settlement, banks have been allowed to treat the accounts as standard. However, if the farmers delay payments beyond June 30, then the outstanding amount will have to be treated as non-performing assets (NPA) and necessary provisions made BL 01041 |
| Area under jute cultivation in AP falls steeply |
| Acreage under mesta grown in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts of A P had come down drastically in recent times to 30,000 hectares from 60,000 hectares, as the farmers were not getting remunerative prices. MSP need to be raised to Rs2,000 per quintal to make Mesta cultivation remunerative. BL 280310 |
| '6.5 million homes got 100 days employment under NREGA' |
| Rural Development Minister C P Joshi today said only 65 lakh households had got 100 days employment under NREGA. When NREGA was launched 10 crore people got job cards. Of these, 4.6 crore got work. But only 65 lakh households availed of 100 days work," Joshi said. PTI 270310 |
| Are India's rich charitable? |
The number of so-called high net worth individuals in India has grown at about 11 per cent every year since 2000, possibly the fastest pace in the world, to more than 115,000 now. |
| But when it comes to giving away money, charitable giving in India probably totaled about $7.5 billion in 2009, equivalent to about 0.6 percent of the country's GDP. That percentage falls way short of the 2.2 percent in the United States, and 1.3 percent in Britain. |
| The wealthiest social class has the lowest level of giving, just 1.6 percent of household income, which palls when compared to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has given away some 82 percent of his net worth. Reuters Mar 23, 2010 |
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