http://www.sify.com/finance/here-s-how-india-can-double-farm-incomes-news-agriculture-sexltngedhdbc.html
Moving food to cities has been a problem. Our policies on cold
storage have not taken off. Harvest and post-harvest loss of India’s major
agricultural produce is estimated at Rs 92,651 crore in 2016 as three of five
components–pack houses, ripening chambers and reefer vehicles–in the cold chain
remained almost entirely without funding, IndiaSpend reported on Aug 11, 2016.
The
government needs to encourage the private sector to invest but the private
sector will need support in some form of finance or tax concessions. That’s how
it has happened in many countries like Thailand or even rich countries like
Japan.
“India faces a paradoxical situation — its rapid economic growth
is coupled with a much slower decline in undernutrition,” said the 2017 Global
Food Policy report. What could be the reasons for the slow decline compared to
countries like Bangladesh where stunting dropped from 55% in 1997 to 36% in
2015?
This is what we call the south Asian enigma. It’s a
phenomenon peculiar to this region. Rapid growth has not been able to translate
into rapid poverty reduction or reduction in hunger and malnutrition. Why is
that? One reason is the inequality of growth. It’s only the rich who benefit
from economic growth. Those who work in the IT sector, the educated or the
wealthy families.
Another
reason is that growth in the agriculture sector has not improved the nutrition
profile. This is because growth comes largely from cereal crops, not from a
diverse food basket.
Yet another problem is the lack of awareness about
nutritional food, balanced diet and sanitation among the poor.
India’s focus in reducing malnutrition and ending hunger has been
in the villages. In what way could the urban poor, living in slums with
inadequate sanitation and water facilities and spending a large part of their
income on food, become a part of government’s strategy to end hunger?
Many
countries–not just India–ignore the urban poor. We don’t even know the number
of urban poor globally. That must be changed. In urban centres where they do
not produce their own food, the poor need social protection, particularly for
food. In urban slums, providing clean drinking water and education is critical.
Twenty
years ago, IFPRI ran a project in Cairo, Egypt, where we provided subsidised
food through ration shops in poor neighborhoods. The country, then, did not
have a household registration system. We did not know who the poor were but we
could identify poor neighborhoods. So, we targeted subsidies in those
neighborhoods.
Before
we can do that in India, we need to do some research about who the poor are,
why they are poor and what strategies could help them. As more people move to
cities, tackling urban poverty, hunger and malnutrition will become important.
How do you think a country like India could increase efficiency
and incomes in agriculture in alignment with sustainable development goals?
The
first thing is that markets should work; in India, markets are distorted. Output
prices do not reflect the real cost of production. Input prices are subsidised
and distorted. Some of the inputs used in agriculture are actually free. People
get away with polluting air or land. All these things must be fixed. Yes, you
need to increase efficiency so that they can produce more, but in the meantime
prices should be determined by markets.
As
urban incomes go up, rising food prices will lift farmers’ incomes. The problem
is that the Indian government wants to keep food prices low. That hurts a lot
of farmers. All the consumers benefit, including the rich ones. The rich
consumers should be paying more, while the poor should get government support.
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