Will India emerge Food basket for Asia: possible says Lehman

Mumbai, Feb 25 (UNI) Asian countries will soon look towards India to meet their food requirements and the country needs to buck up its agricultural productivity substantially, Research analyst firm Lehman Brothers said today.

Talking to newsmen here, Lehman Brothers Executive Director and Chief Asia Equity Strategist Paul Schulte said sitting pretty with 50 per cent of cultivable land, India was the only country, which had the capability to feed the continent as food production in rest of Asia was tapering off and even China, Vietnam and Thailand are no longer having exportable surpluses. Largest wheat producer in the world, China is not able to export the commodity and Vietnam had banned export of Rice, with Thailand soon the follow it, he added.

He said India needs to take steps to enhance its agricultural productivity as over the next decade its prominence in Agriculture would shoot up.

Lehman Brothers felt the next big global move would be privatisation of Indian agriculture. Private sector investment in India could exceed 25 billion US dollars with fetiliser stocks worth the look.

Mr Schulte said India had the most favourable demographics globally with new entrants into the workforce exceeding the population of European Union.

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