‘Grains Vs Guns’ seems to here been the latest statement made by the eminent agriculture scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan in Tiruvandrum enclave of Indian Scientists inaugurated by Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Swaminathan has been advocating and asserting on the significance of food grains viz-a-viz the guns produced or procured by nations in modern times. In his reviewą®் and interviews on ‘Food inflation’ he laments the absence or inadequacy of proper and timely formulation of policy decisions on the supply-side of food economics on the part of Govt. of India. The immediate concern (second week of January, 2010) of everyone from top to bottom – i.e. Prime Minister and his team of advisors downwards up to the desk of Sharad Power and his officials is how to check this maddening spree of price spiral in food grains, pulses, oils, vegetables, fruits and sugar.
A few days ago R.B.I headed by Governor Subha Rao, Economic Advisory Council headed by Dr. C. Renganathan, Planning Commission headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia made forecasts to the effect that inflationary trend especially in grains, vegetables and sugar would beat a retreat soon. Now all of them seem to have been stumped with the outstanding upward movement of price rise. Consumers seem to be stunned and forced to reveal their latent out- bursts and concerns on such a development as made out from their interviews of late both in print and electronic media day in day out. Commodity economics as reflected in the behaviour of commodity markets seems to be elusive of any amenable solution available to eminent stock-exchange economists like M.S. Ahluwalia, Rengarajan and others. Macro economists brought up in the school of international trade, balance of payment, international banking, stock exchange markets, capital account convertibility, private equity and profit maximization do suddenly find themselves unable to tackle food inflation, agri-economics, retail price index etc. They are unable to decipher the loop-holes prevalent in supply side theory and practice of economics. The entire paraphernalia engaged in production of grains, pulses and sugar is unable to cope with a realistic study of the area deployed for this purpose, the inadequacy or absence of incentive on a balanced use of timely and requisite inputs needed for production, processing, storage and marketing of essential commodities. Department of Agriculture and Co-operation and the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs both at Central and State Government levels appear to be so much engrossed in their routine engagement on facts and figures, meetings and minutes that they hardly ever applied their mind and soul to study the long term trend in demand and supply existing potential and requisite supplies in the case of essential commodities like food grains – both rice and wheat, pulses, oils, vegetables, fruits and sugar as also the chronic problems faced by the major producers viz. the small and marginal farmers in the countryside.
The nation expects from senior agriculture scientists like Dr. M.S. Swaminathan to devote their precious time and energy on experiments with the Science & Technology connected with the production, processing and marketing of agri-produce so that the governments can feed the entire population of this country in the days to come. Mere conferences, congresses and consultations including paper and book publicity are not going to deliver goods as one would expect.
