Former agriculture secretary raps govt over distorted cropping patterns

The fourth Advance Estimates of production of major crops for 2018-19 have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on August 19. As per Fourth Advance Estimates, total foodgrain production in the country is estimated at 284.95 million tonnes which is nearly steady compared with 285.01 million tonnes of production for 2017-18. For the next year, the estimate for the food grain output is at 291 million tonnes, which would be a record high.

According to Siraj Hussain, former agriculture secretary, the government procured too much rice because of rise in the MSP of paddy last year, when the prices were fixed at 50 percent more than actual paid out cost plus imputed value of family labour (A2 + FL). "The rice prices were raised by about 13 percent. As a result, there is very high procurement of rice. The buffer stock of rice is about double the norm. I think the government will find it very hard to sell the stock,” he noted.

Talking about pricing and excessive stock, he said, “Retail prices of both wheat and rice have not been rising. So on the price front, we should be fine. This issue of procurement and excessive stock is related to diversification. We are producing rice in areas where there should be no production. Distortion in the procurement is also due to rice crop being grown in areas which are not at all suitable for paddy cultivation.”