PM intervention sought to re-orient farm policies

New Delhi, Oct 6: Former Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers and Member of Parliament Suresh Prabhu has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's immediate intervention to re-orient farm policies to ensure food security and adequate domestic production of fertilisers for enhancing the crop productivity.

In letter to Dr Singh, Mr Prabhu, who belongs to Shiv Sena, expressed concern over continued low growth in the agricultural sector that had been adversely affecting targeted GDP growth rate of above 8 per cent.

Mr Prabhu said that during the last 3-4 years, the agricultural sector has recorded CAGR of about 1-2 per cent, which had ultimately subdued the demand for industrial goods.

Decline in agricultural wages, increased landlessness and rising food prices have severally marred the right to food in rural India, he added.

The Government's decision to import 1.5 million tonnes wheat has raised serious doubts on country's food security especially since, till recently, the country was having over-flowing stocks of food grain with potential to export wheat.

On the shortage of fertilisers, Mr Prabhu further said in a situation when there is food shortage in the country, fertiliser shortage would further affect the farm output on account of lower yield due to lower usage of fertilisers.

India would be importing about 4 million tonnes of Urea, 2.6 million tonnes of DAP and 3.8 million tonnes of Potash during 2006-07 to meet the demand supply gap.

It is a well known fact that whenever India/China entered into international market for importing fertilisers, it resulted in substantial increase in international fertiliser prices, he added.

Mr Prabhu mentioned that fertiliser procurement at prevalent high international prices will have its own fiscal repercussions. The lower dosage of fertiliser will have a negative impact on the farm yield tereby making farmers more vulnerable to adverse economics.

Imbalanced use of NPK fertilisers due to price distortion has already adversely affected the fertility of land as average landed cost of imported urea currently was at Rs 11,600 PMT inclusive of Custom Duty as against the average production cost of domestic area at about Rs 9,800 PMT whereas the average cost of urea from gas-based plants is still lower at about Rs 7,800 PMT.

He said that the current Government policies were leading the fertiliser industry to sickness. That is why the country is turning towards increased import dependence at high international prices.

Mr Prabhu said the vexed agriculture sector related matters having a direct impact on food security do not appear to be properly getting addressed. A number of policy initiatives under consideration of the Government are not in public domain.

He asked for Dr Singh's personal intervention to look at the policies under formulation in respect of agriculture and farm inputs (like fertilisers) so as to make them more transparent, rational and dynamic in the current competitive scenario.

Mr Prabhu urged him for re-orientation of the policy framework to encourage productivity and cost effectiveness and ensure reasonable returns to encourage the much needed large financial investment in this sector for increased domestic production.

UNI