1 Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009 SSS-AKG/11.00/1A ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

164Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009once on the sugarcane stuff, and then on this stuff about prices, both ofwhich seem to have somewhat taken him by surprise. For an astuteplayer of his kind, fortunately, Sir, unlike Don Bradman, this is not hislast innings and he can hope to really salvage his reputation.Sir, couple of things are very clear. First and foremost, the currentrise in prices is a combination of several factors; combination, first andforemost, of endemic, long-term disequilibrium between demand andsupply, changing consumer preferences, plateauing of our productivityand disruption of global markets and distribution. Some of these lendthemselves to short-term solutions. There are others, Sir, where thecauses are more endemic. But there is no getting away, Mr. Minister,with the fact that unless supply side responses are significantlyimproved, it will be difficult to make a short-term dent in the situation.One unhappy thing is that, unfortunately, this does not seem to be aspike in the prices from 2007-08; this seems to be an endemic long-termtrend driven by three important factors. First and foremost, Sir, driven bythe fact that meat consumption is going up at a rate which isunprecedented. Second, Sir, population, which is six billion today, evenwith the best of efforts, will hit 9.2 billion by 2050. And, thirdly, Sir, theinability for global productivity patterns, cropping systems to sustainhigher levels of productivity in the light of the changing dynamics ofclimate changes seem to be insurmountable.My suggestion to the Minister is, concentrate on two types ofmeasures. First of all, concentrate on some short-term measures. Whatcan you do in the short run? In the short run, I think that the mostimportant thing he can do, Sir, and the London Economist, about which
165Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009I had the privilege of mentioning to you, which carried a specialsupplement only two weeks ago, said, as far as India is concerned, howdo we minimise 35 per cent waste in fruits and vegetables and 44 percent waste in a whole range of other crops.(Contd. by hk/3e)HK/3e/4.25SHRI N.K. SINGH (CONTD.): This can be done by, of course,concentrating on something which he is doing, but accelerating it interms of marketing linkages, prolonging the shelf life and enabling theadvantages of cold chain to small and medium farmers. This will givesome short-term returns which will be very gainful and beneficial. Icome, Sir, to some long-term factors since the time available to me isvery short. Fortunately, investments in agriculture, which in a 25-yearscycle went down significantly to just 1.2 per cent, has cropped up in thelast 18 months. It has again gone up from about 1.2 per cent to 8 percent. Will it make up the past? Historically speaking, perhaps not. ButI think along with the challenge of making up the investment deficiency,one sad part is, Sir, that the per capita availability of foodgrains in thelast five years, and particularly, in the last two years, to the poorestpopulation of the world, has gone down. That is why, Mr. Minister, I amsure you are aware that the FAO Conference on Hunger, that we justconcluded one week ago, ended its last Resolution to say, "Tonight inthe world more than one billion people will sleep hungry." As far asIndia is concerned, in the last 18 months, 250 million people, accordingto the UN statistics, have gone under deeper poverty. That is one ofthe factors that we need to attack ourselves. We need to attack
Page 1:
1Uncorrected/ Not for publication-
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
HK/1e/11.2029Uncorrected/ Not for p
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
101Uncorrected/ Not for publication
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114: 113Uncorrected/ Not for publication
Page 163: 163Uncorrected/ Not for publication
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235:
show all

1 Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009 SSS-AKG/11.00/1A ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?