The central Government announced  Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for Kharif crops, 2010-11 on June 8, 2010.

But the announcement of MSP does not take into account the increase in input costs especially the increase in prices of urea and fertilisers like MOP and DAP as well as increase in petrol and diesel prices. Farmers have been forced to pay extremely high prices for DAP and MOP after the decontrol of prices under the Nutrient Based Subsidy Regime. The MSP announced does not provide any additional incentive to the farmers to cultivate the crops.

India’s agricultural production should increase at a rate fast enough to ensure food security for national growing population. Equally importantly, growth in India cannot be truly inclusive if it does not benefit the farmers; especially those who are small and marginal. Investment in the agricultural sector needs to increase, a larger area needs to be covered under irrigation, agricultural markets need to be reformed and farmers need to be provided remunerative prices for their produce and better quality seeds and inputs. Sustained efforts have to be made to prevent degradation of land and water resources. To increase production it is a need to increase the farm yields also, because the scope for increasing the area under cultivation and under irrigation is rather limited. Yields must go up particularly in those parts of India where they have lagged behind compared to other parts of the country. All must endeavor to raise India’s agricultural growth rate from around 2 per cent per annum to 4 per cent.

National Horticulture Board (NHB) provides back-ended capital investment subsidy to the eligible organizations for creation/ modernization/ expansion of cold storage/ Controlled Atmosphere Storage @ 25% of the project cost. A total number of 2221 cold storages with capacity of 92.23 lakh MT have been approved so far with eligible subsidy of Rs. 614.86 crore.

Under National Horticulture Mission (NHM) scheme, financial assistance is provided for the development of post harvest management including for cold storages and cold chain component. Subsidy @ 40% (for general areas) and 55% (for hilly and tribal areas) of capital cost of the project is available for both public and private sector enterprises. The subsidy for the private sector is credit linked and back-ended.

The Government has fixed the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for Kharif Crops of 2010-11 season. The MSP of Paddy (Common) has been fixed at Rs. 1000 per quintal and of Paddy (Grade A) at Rs. 1030 per quintal, which represents an increase of Rs. 50 per quintal over the last year’s MSPs.

The MSPs of Jowar (Hybrid), Bajra and Maize each have been raised by Rs. 40 per quintal and fixed at Rs.880 per quintal. The MSP of Jowar (Maldandi) has also been raised by Rs. 40 per quintal over the last year’s MSP and fixed at Rs. 900 per quintal. The MSP of Ragi has been fixed at Rs.965 per quintal – raising it by Rs. 50 per quintal over the last year’s MSP.

In India, of the total cultivated area of around 140.30 million hectares only 60.86 million is irrigated and remaining 79.44 million hectares is rain-fed. Rain-fed crops account for 48 percent area under food crops and 68 percent of the area under non-food crops. Irrigated land accounts for nearly 55 percent of food production while rain-fed contributes just about 45 percent. Rain-fed farming is risk prone and is characterized by low levels of productivity and low input use but if managed properly, rain-fed areas have the potential to contribute a larger share to agricultural production.

Data received from States reveal that sowing of kharif crops has begun. Rice has been sown in 3.37  lakh ha compared to last year’s coverage of 3.61.

The cropped areas this year and last year for major kharif crops as on 28^th May, 2010 are as follows:

As per assessment study conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on the impact of climate change, a rise in temperature reduces crop duration, increases crop respiration rates, affects the equilibrium between crops and pests, hastens nutrient mineralization in soils, decreases fertilizer use efficiencies, and increases evapo-transpiration.

Increase in carbon dioxide, however, is beneficial for several crops such as wheat, rice, legumes and oilseeds. Crops such as maize, jowar, bajra and sugarcane do not benefit from increased carbon dioxide. 

Utsa Patnaik ,    Centre for Economic Studies and Planning

Jawaharlal Nehru University,    New Delhi  110 067

Introduction

The idea that the advanced country holds up a mirror of its own future to the developing country, is not true with regard to the fate of the peasantry. The third world peasantry including tribal communities, will not disappear but will resist successfully the attacks upon their  livelihood and assets under the present neo-liberal dispensation.  Petty production did disappear as agricultural relations were capitalistically transformed in today’s advanced countries in the course of their 19^th and 20^th century industrialization. A striking fact however is that  the large scale capitalist agriculture which developed there was never able to  meet the wage –goods, raw materials and energy needs of industrialization or diversify Northern consumption baskets,  and this remains as true today as it was in the past. The advanced capitalist world today is again out to acquire control over the superior productive capacity of tropical lands and obtain access to the mineral and energy resources of developing countries.

The 3rd Advance Estimates of production of major crops grown in the country have been released . The latest estimates is based on the feedback received from the states and validated with information available from other sources.

As per the 3rd Advance Estimates, the production of major crops during 2009-10 is as under:

Lack of adequate or proper storage facilities is resulting in rotting of foodgrains.

“The condition of the godowns in the country is not good and that is resulting in the rotting of foodgrains,” said Union Agriculture minister Sarad Pawar.

The government itself acknowledged that the country wastes Rs 58,000 crore worth of food items every year due to lack of or poor storage facilities.

The agriculture sector in our country is in a state of crisis. Its share in GDP has come down over the years. The sector has suffered a setback in the recent years as witnessed from the growth rate of only 2% per annum during 9th plan period and about 2.3% during the 10th Plan against a target of 4%. The average economic growth during the last four years ranged between 7.5% and 9.4% per annum, but there is hardly 2% growth in the agricultural sector during this period.

FOOD SECURITY AT STAKE

Food security has been endangered in the recent times with stagnation or rather decline in per capita availability of foodgrains leading to resumption of large scale import of wheat at exorbitant prices and looming shortage of rice in the country. The task of achieving self-sufficiency in food has been a formidable task and sustaining the same is more challenging.

Satyajit Rath,National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick

The Bt Brinjal debate has featured technological worries relating to genetically modified crops which appear relatively minor in comparison to the critical issue of who controls Indian agriculture and therefore food security in India. While there cannot be a mere technological fix to the problems of Indian agriculture, technology – and therefore GM will be part of the solutions. The article is an extract from a larger manuscript to be published in the EPW.

The National Horticulture Mission (NHM) was launched during Tenth Plan (from May 2005-06) for the holistic development of horticulture sector in the country. All the States and Union Territories are covered under the Mission except the eight North Eastern States including Sikkim and the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which are covered under another Mission namely the Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in the North Eastern States (TMNE). The scheme is continued during the XI Five Year Plan.

During the X Five Year Plan, the scheme was implemented for a period of 2 years. The achievements made under the Mission during 2005-06 and 2006-07 are as under:

Government Spent Rs. 64032.30 Crore on Fertilizer Subsidy During 2009-10

Consumption (Sales) of major fertilizers like Urea, DAP, MOP and NPK fertilizers during the year 2009-10 and the year prior to it i.e. 2008-09 is as under:

As per the Eleventh Plan document the target growth rate of 4 per cent is set for Agriculture & Allied Sector during the Plan period (2007-12).   In the first two years of the Eleventh Plan, Agriculture and Allied Sector recorded a growth rate of 4.7 per cent in 2007-08 and 1.6 per cent in 2008-09.

To incentivize the states to increase investment in Agriculture and Allied Sector to achieve the growth rate of 4 percent as envisaged in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, Government has launched several Schemes which include

In Andhra Pradesh some farmers are producing seed and selling them to other farmers. Can they do this? Is it illegal?

Legally they have a right to produce, save, share and sell the seed, until they try to sell them on commercial lines with brand name on packs etc. Here are some legal provisions which declare the rights of the farmers.

The amendments proposed by the agriculture minister to the seed bill seriously compromises the rights of the peasantry to grow, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell their farm seeds and planting material. The bill in the present form will lead to unrestricted commercialisation of varieties in the public domain, including farmers’ varieties. the agriculture minister has disregarded the substantive amendments proposed by the standing committee on agriculture and resorted merely to cosmetic changes, and that the minister is seeking to push through a legislation that will jeopardise the lives of millions of peasants and put agriculture entirely at the mercy of MNC agri-businesses. The move clearly has to be seen in the backdrop of the Bt Brinjal fiasco and is aimed to placate Monsanto and suit the American business interests.

Data received from States reveal that pulses have been sown in 147.42 lakh ha area as compared to last year’s coverage of 138.68 lakh ha. till date.  It is about 8.75 lakh ha. More than last year’s sown area.

The cropped areas this year and last year for major rabi crops as on 22^nd April are as follows:

Food Processing Industry is employment intensive. It has been estimated that for every Rs.1 crore invested, it creates 18 jobs directly and 64 indirectly in the organized sector and 20 jobs in the unorganised sector across the supply chain. At present food processing sector employs about 13 million people directly and about 35 million people indirectly. Government is encouraging Food Processing Sector to increase the processing level from 6% to 20 % and value addition increase from 20% to 30%.   However, no specific area and gender-wise employment figures are maintained in the Ministry.

The Government of India has taken a decision to impose moratorium only on commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal. Research and biosafety assessment of many other crops is in pipeline. Since the regulatory framework of GM crops is country specific, the decision taken in one country has no impact on the decision taken in other country.