Prioritise agri boost over politics

Heavy rains followed by flooding in many countries like Thailand and Vietnam could come as a boon for rice-producing countries like India. The heavy floods along the Mekong River belt have caused severe damage to crops in these two Southeast Asian countries. The threat of more floods along this belt is also not ruled out. According to reports, the paddy fields have been washed away. This coupled with Russia-Ukraine war has raised concerns about food security in these two countries.

Despite fall in acreage under paddy in India this year and some damages the floods caused in some states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, there is a golden opportunity for the traders as the flooding in the Southeast Asian countries provides an opportunity to increase their share in rice exports. At present, India accounts for about 40% of global supply. Moreover, the price of Indian rice is cheaper than what countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan etc quote.

The Union government has been saying that the FCI godowns are full of rice for last one or two years. It's time it took a well-studied decision to encourage rice exports for two reasons. First, it will help create some space for storing Kharif 2022 crop in godowns and, secondly, it will help the exporters get more orders from these countries in future.

The area under paddy in certain parts of India has been less this year for various reasons such as less rain in some states and procurement issues in a few others.

It is estimated that the sowing has been less by about 17 per cent. However, still the country has enough food grains that got piled up over the past two years as a result of high crop yields. In fact, we recently saw how the Centre and Telangana were locked in a controversy over the purchase of rice by the Centre. Both continue to blame each other for the losses the farmers had suffered. Not just Telangana even States like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu reportedly have gone in for lesser sowing of paddy this year. The high stocks of rice also provide an opportunity to encourage agri-based industries that can turn export-oriented.

During 2021-22, the exports of agricultural and processed food products from India were to the tune of $25.6 billion, which is 51 per cent of India's total agriculture exports of $50 billion, according to Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. According to the DGCI&S data, export of rice was the top forex earner at $ 9,654 million during 2021-22, growing 9.35 per cent from previous year when it touched $8,829 million. Exports of other processed food items grew by 34 per cent during 2021-22 to touch $1164 million as against $866 million in the previous year.

Major exports destinations as per 2021-22 data are Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, USA, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Egypt. What is required is proper planning by the Centre and the States, too, should pitch in to encourage more and more agro-based industries.

The entire country is in election mode. This is the right time to plan and go to the people with new and concrete ideas of development rather than waste productive time in stalling proceedings of Parliament or staging dharna on petty issues on the streets.