Saturday, January 18, 2014

The approach to Contain food Inflation

To contain food inflation in particular,the state Governments and Central Government have to ensure that agricultural Production gets a boost with support of improved productivity, yield per acre, enhanced area under agricultural production, proper storage,transportation at cheap rates, marketing and distribution removing several layers operating there on. NABARD has a key role and it cannot be acting as a Policy making and Refinancing institution. It has to be in the field coordinating with state Governments and various agencies involved in all agricultural and rural related activities. The Local Boards of RBI can also be more effective involving themselves in intensifying the activities of all agencies and guiding them with proper policy inputs. It is high time RBI local boards and NABARD interact and come out with adequate support to solve the issues related to agricultural production. APMC ACT Needs to be totally scrapped and middlemen who indulge in all corrupt practices hiking the prices of commodities without benefiting either the producer or the consumer have to be eliminated. A lot can be done but the will is missing. 

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

( This comment in ET is in response to an article The only way to tackle food inflation is through holistic reform of agriculture ).

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