India to face 30-40 mln tonnes of food shortage by 2020

New Delhi, Aug 3 (UNI) Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said in the Lok Sabha that the country is expected to face substantial shortage in food by the year 2012 and it will be to the tune of nearly 30 to 40 million tonnes by the year 2020, according to a study conducted by his Ministry.

Replying to the Produce Cess laws (Abolition) Bill, 2006, Mr Pawar said his Ministry had already initiated several steps to overcome the anticipated food shortage scenario in the country.

Mr Pawar said the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940, provided for the imposition of a cess on certain articles such as bones, butter, cereals and other than rice and wheat, drugs, fish, fruits, ghee, oil, cakes, spices, vegetables, sheep or lamb wool and animal hair by way of customs duty on export to make better financial provision for the Indian Council of Agriculrtural Research.

Similarly, the Produce Cess Act, 1966 provided for the impositiion of cess on certain produce such as Lac, refuse lac produced in India and cashew kernal when they were exported beyond the limits of India, for the improvement and development of the methods of cultivation and making of the said produce.

He said the cess under these acts is a tax on exports. In the present national and international context, it was bad economics to tax exports. From a national perspective, agricultural exports were being seen as a means to augment farm income. Exports were being incentivised through scheme, which involved foregoing of revenue.

Taxing some of these very exports, which were being incentivised, was inconsistent and illogical. ''From the international perspective also, it seems irrational on our part to levy a tax on agricultural exports, when many other countries are aggressively promoting their agricultural exports through large subsidies. These subsidies impact adversely on the competitiveness of our exports. Continuance of a cess on agricultural produce will only make the exports more expensive and uncompetitive.'' He said the enactments levying the cess did not contain any provision for grant of exemption. It was, therefore, proposed to repeal the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940, and the Produce Cess Act, 1966, to abolish cess on the export of agricultural products levied under the respective acts.

Presently, Punjab, Haryana and part of Western Uttar Pradesh were the main producers of wheat and there was little scope left of increasing the wheat production in these states, he added.

As wheat production could not be taken to anywhere and everywhere, his Ministry had identified some areas where it could be produced economically and by using high yeilding varieties, the production of wheat could be increased. These are Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, part of Maharashtra and Bihar.

Regarding rice, he said, ''We are one of the largest exporters of rice and our rice export last year was to the tune of over Rs 6000 crore on account of our Basmati rice export.'' On the rice production front, after Punjab some of the unknown States had become major producers which were Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, Mr Pawar said.

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