Land given to industry hit Gujarat grain production: Activists

Gujarat's foodgrain production got reduced because fertile land of farmers were acquired by corporates, which also resulted in environmental pollution, social activists said here today.
"The socio-economic review presented by the Gujarat government in the assembly states that Gujarat's foodgrain production has gone down in 2011-12 from that of 2010-11. While, it was 1,00,71,000 tonnes in 2010-11, it reduced to 92,57,000 tonnes in the next financial year," the NGO Paryavaran Mitra's Mahesh Pandya told reporters.
"Foodgrain production reduced because fertile land of farmers were acquired by corporates for industrial projects, which has also resulted in environmental pollution," Pandya claimed.
The Gujarat government had introduced a liberal land acquisition policy, rendering farmers landless, he alleged.

Despite claims that Gujarat is power surplus, he said that villages like Shialbet near Jafarabad in Amreli district had no electricity connection.
Pandya said the 2011 census showed that 11 lakh Gujarati households did not have electricity connections.
"Gujarat is a highly food insecure state. According to International Food Policy Research Institute, it has high food insecurity levels. Despite this, fertile land of farmers are being acquired by corporates for industrial projects. Land acquired over the past decade could have produced food for a million people," he said.