Every year we lose Rs 58,000 Crores worth food grains due to absence of/poor storage facilities. This is approximately 10% of the total food production in the country. In a country where food inflation is at 16% plus, and 60% of the people living below the poverty line and struggling for one square meal a day, one would have expected any decent government to add storage capacity on a war footing, apart from augmenting the infrastructure of the existing storage facilities.
On the one hand there is a direct loss of foodgrains already procured. Either they are left in the open, leading to loss of weight or sprouting. Or the storage facilities are so poor, rats feast on them. Pilferage is another threat. There is a much wider indirect cost. Lack of storage facilities result in Government lowering its procurement targets, leaving the farmers to the mercy of the private middlemen, who fleeces them. The farmer loses interest in farming over a period of time, and migrates to city. Is it any wonder our agriculture growth is less than 2%?
Lack of priority in procurement and distribution of food grains mean millions starve. Rural India is worse than Sub Saharan Africa when it comes to malnutrition and children mortality. The rural Indai is hungry. According to UN figures 61 million children in India have stunted growth and 42% of the world's underweight children are in India. And we shout from the rooftops about 8.5% GDP growth. We should be ashamed.
The MP's have Rs 2 Crore fund for developing his constituency every year. Why can't they be asked to set up storage facilities in their Constituencies for 3 years using this fund. You can create a lot of storage capacity with Rs 6 crores. Multiply that by 750 MPs (both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) and the investable fund is approximately Rs 4500 Crores. The Government recently waived Rs 60,000 crores worth farmer loans. If they had spent one fourth of it in building modern godowns, farmer suicides that has assumed alarming proportions can be avoided.
Farmer Co-Operatives can be set up in rural areas with the specific purpose of developing storage infrastructure. Land is not an issue as Government excess land is available in plenty in rural areas, or alternatively the farmers will happily chip in with the funds for the land.
The Agricultural Ministry requires a young, dynamic go getter. It is far too critical a ministry to be left to a non performer like Sharad Pawar. But who cares? Sometimes I suspect, there is a vested interest in keeping the rural India poor, for then the ruling party can dole out some benefits like free sari, money, liquour, TV sets during election time to win votes. Why can't we have an Agricultural Budget presented in the Parliament, when we have a budget for Railways, which is much less important.
The Indian farmer wants a level playing field, effective marketing strategy, fair price, quality seeds, fertilizer at competitive prices and more farm credit at the right time at a low interest rate. He also needs the government to set up medium scale industries that add value to his agrarian product in the broader farming area of his. This calls for a grand vision which is sorely lacking.The amount of subsidies given to the industrialists who employ one twentieth of what the farm sector employs is mindboggling. But the farmers are not organized and they dont know how to lobby, and they dont have the money in crores to grease the politicians palms. Hence, he is left high and dry.
When I was a kid, it was drilled into me that I should not waste food. Should we not drill this into our worthy netas as well?
