PM asks states to shed false sense of food security

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urged state governments to improve food productivity and address concerns of food inflation. At the same time, he assured all support from the Union government in this regard.

“Our experience in the past two years has brought to the fore the importance of food security and the need to contain prices. For some time past, there was, if I may say so, a false sense of security that availability of food has ceased to be a concern. Similarly, many felt that we have been able to control prices. But, we have learnt that our growing population and higher levels of living necessitate augmentation of our food supplies,” Singh said at the first annual conference of state chief secretaries.

Prices of food items like sugar, pulses and rice have seen a sharp rise after the monsoon failed last year. India’s annual food inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 17.4 per cent for the week ended January 16.

As on January 1, the government had 24 million tonnes of rice and 23 million tonnes of wheat in its pool as on January 1. However, steps taken to offload additional grain in the open market had not yielded much results. Singh said the country’s agricultural productivity still ranked far below the best in the world and there was great scope for improving the productivity of major crops.

He also acknowledged the vulnerability of the country to high global food prices. “We must recognise that in a globalized world, it will never be possible to insulate ourselves from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply.”