Pawar says essential commodity prices coming down

New Delhi, Mar 18 (ANI): Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the prices of essential commodities are coming down.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an agricultural seminar here, Pawar said the present trend in the prices of commodities is a good sign.

"Sugar was the biggest problem and there is a substantial improvement in that. There is different situation in potato and onion prices. I'm getting immense pressure about potato price that have reached Rs. two per kg. That I should take some action to save the farmers there are talks about exports. So the situation is definitely changing as I used to say earlier that there would be a change in the situation in 2-3 months. So that trend is visible everywhere and it's a good sign," said Pawar.

He also ruled out exporting surplus wheat lying in the godowns to reduce the stock.

"We are not at all talking about exports until its prices, availability and improvement is stabilised we are not going to talk about exports in this country even if we have surplus stock with us," added Pawar.

Pawar however favoured stepping up wheat allocation to Above Poverty Line (APL) families.

Pawar also blamed the reports submitted by the state government about the sugarcane production and it said that it adversely affects the sugar prices.

"They gave report that there was 220... and I used to say that I don't think this can be correct. But ultimately if every state is telling confidently then we had to accept it as it was in writing. Then after two months when we took review, it came down to 200, 180, 170, 160 like this. So system has to be improved in the states. There data collection system looks like...I don't know whether patwari (local revenue officer) or some revenue office communicate that there is good crop, so the traditional information which they have about ... is passed on to us and this I believe used to have adverse effect on the overall situation," added Pawar.

He also said that India would produce more than 17 million tonnes of sugar in 2009/10 thereby projecting a higher output than industry estimates. (ANI)