Egged on by the abject days of PL-480,the ' grow more food ' slogan brought on a regime of incentives / subsidies that sadly gathered political overtones with the prescribed economic / market tools rusting in disuse.On one hand we have record procurement by the Centre at increasing MSPs and on the other, huge amounts of stored grain , neither funneled to the supply chain nor taken care of , rotting away.Today despite bumper grain crops the retail prices are soaring.
In the meanwhile, inclusive schemes like MGNREGS have led to higher wages in rural areas and when bench marked to inflation, rural wages have risen faster than inflation since 2007-08. Then there is the rapid intra-state rural-urban migration fueled by job opportunities in infrastructure and construction projects in urban areas. The NSSO data shows that nearly 72 per cent of male migrants from rural areas to other parts of India sent remittances in 2007-08, to families in rural India, boosting rural consumption .The rural demand for of vegetable , milk & poultry products went up sharply, on this new found prosperity.You can not forever blame untimely rains ,the middlemen and so on, to explain away serious structural maladies in the secondary agro system.
The income-trailing rural/ urban population has still to make do with onions and potatoes and the contingent price escalation of the tubers, in the overall scenario, brings in bewilderment and anger. Little wonder that this ' twin ' has the power to swing elections !. A complete redesign in boosting production of not only the poor man's tuber twins but the entire gamut of perishable food items, together with storage and distribution mechanism on a national perspective, is a vital and pressing need. One thing is clear .The problem of the urban consumer and his rural cousin, is not going away soon.
( PUBLISHED 14/11/2013- BUSINESS STANDARD )
In the meanwhile, inclusive schemes like MGNREGS have led to higher wages in rural areas and when bench marked to inflation, rural wages have risen faster than inflation since 2007-08. Then there is the rapid intra-state rural-urban migration fueled by job opportunities in infrastructure and construction projects in urban areas. The NSSO data shows that nearly 72 per cent of male migrants from rural areas to other parts of India sent remittances in 2007-08, to families in rural India, boosting rural consumption .The rural demand for of vegetable , milk & poultry products went up sharply, on this new found prosperity.You can not forever blame untimely rains ,the middlemen and so on, to explain away serious structural maladies in the secondary agro system.
The income-trailing rural/ urban population has still to make do with onions and potatoes and the contingent price escalation of the tubers, in the overall scenario, brings in bewilderment and anger. Little wonder that this ' twin ' has the power to swing elections !. A complete redesign in boosting production of not only the poor man's tuber twins but the entire gamut of perishable food items, together with storage and distribution mechanism on a national perspective, is a vital and pressing need. One thing is clear .The problem of the urban consumer and his rural cousin, is not going away soon.
( PUBLISHED 14/11/2013- BUSINESS STANDARD )
No comments:
Post a Comment