Pawar pooh-poohs wheat crisis as India feels crunch

WHEAT WOES: Pawar preferred to import wheat, paying twice the amount, instead of upping the MSP.

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Keywords: Sharad Pawar, Inflation

New Delhi: BCCI chief Sharad Pawar also happens to be the country's custodian of food. Pawar always flaunts his ability to manage cricket as well as he manages the agriculture ministry. But now, as cricketers rake in crores, rising food prices are burning a hole in the common man's pocket.

Pawar insists, however, that there is no crisis.

“If you study and compare the wheat prices of the world and India, India's prices are the lowest in the world,” he had stated.

Despite the minister's confidence, serious questions are being asked about decisions taken by his ministry, especially when importing wheat.

While Indian farmers push for higher prices, the minister preferred to import wheat, paying twice the amount to farmers abroad, something that even the allies of the government could not justify, forcing it to cancel the last tender for wheat imports and hike the minimum support price to a Rs 1000 a quintal. However, agriculture experts feel the crisis is far from over.

“The Government has changed the APMC Act which allows the private company to buy directly from the farmers. So what has happened in the process is that private companies have ensured that their godowns are overflowing whereas the official godowns, the PDS godowns are empty," explained economist and agriculture specialist, Devinder Sharma.

India has contributed significantly to the global price rise of wheat by becoming a wheat importer. If it fails to improve procurement from its farmers, it will have to have to continue to import and that would prove to be a huge expense for its consumers, both rich and poor and, of course, the farmers.

“How can you reduce the prices for the consumers by bringing wheat at a very, very high price?” Sharma demanded.

Just six years ago, godowns were overflowing. On April 1, 2002, wheat stocks stood at a staggering 26 million tonnes.

Five years later, the stocks were at an all time low of 1.9 million tonnes against a required buffer stock of 4.1 million tonnes.

Wheat procurement by the Government has also gone down from 20.6 million tonnes in 2001-2002 to 14.8 million tonnes in 2005-6.

India needs 17 million tonnes for its welfare programmes like the PDS, which is three to four million more.

From being self sufficient in food grains and a net exporter of wheat, India, under the leadership of Sharad Pawar is becoming a net importer.

While in the past years there were shortages, this time, the feeling on the ground is that the present crisis is a manufactured one.

With inputs from Divyamanu Chaudhry