‘Producers will gain from hike’

By C. Anand reddy

New Delhi

May 26: Experts in the food sector now assert that the present high food prices regime in the national and world markets shall be used to the advantage of food producers. However, they cautioned that this needs a lot of packaging.

"The WTO regime till now saw to it that food prices remain low in the international market. But due to the demand-supply gap and other factors, the food prices have now reached a peak. It is now appropriate to think on the lines of enabling the farmers benefit from this high price situation," Dr Mruyunjaya, national director of Naip (National Agricultural Innovation Project), said. Speaking at a workshop on "Global Food Security and Rising Food Prices" organised by Teri here, Dr Mruthyunjaya said, "It is wrong to be under the impression that India’s food situation is bad. As per the FAO food outlook report, 37 developing countries are currently facing food crisis. India does not figure in this list." The FAO food outlook report 2008 has said: "Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was. As the global food import bill has entered the trillion dollar territory, the food import bill of the Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is likely to climb to $169 billion in 2008."

Further, experts are of the opinion that even if cereal production has recorded a 28 per cent rise from 2007 and 2008, there is no guarantee that prices will come down. On the other hand, constraints to agricultural input access are very acute in countries like India.

In such a scenario, it is argued that even while the governments try to grapple with food inflation, the administration shall find ways to transfer part of the benefits of high food costs to farmers.