Rising Food Prices: Vegetables and Pulses
Posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
The past few years have shown a sharp incline in food prices the world over. For developing countries, the implications can be particularly devastating especially for the vulnerable sections forcing the poor to reduce food consumption and nutrition and pushing the near poor back into poverty.
Dal – Sabzee is no longer a common man’s staple diet. It’s now fine dining! Such are the times Indian households are facing. It’s not just the “fancy” broccoli or mushroom that have become expensive; even the humble potato, tomato and onion are becoming gourmet.
“You can cut down on other luxuries but how can you tell your child to eat less? We now have to make do with just one variety of vegetable in one meal and try and compensate that in the next”, a distressed wife and mother says.
While potato prices have more than doubled in the last one year, pulses saw 41 per cent increase. Vegetable prices soared 47 per cent. Onions became more expensive by about 40%.
India faces a serious challenge in its population growth exceeding the food grain productivity. Domestic availability of wheat, pulses and edible oils have been diminishing over time, which is accentuated by the diminishing food grain area in the country that threatens India’s food security in the long run.
High food prices have most affected the marginalised and weaker sections of society, especially women and children. It is generally believed that high prices result in better returns to the farmers. But in reality it is the intermediaries who make the best gains from this appreciation. It leaves the landless labourers with less food as wages and subsequently becomes the biggest loser.
The present crisis mandates stringent review in agricultural trade policies. India’s billion strong population cannot afford to rely on imports. But it is also difficult to shun away mounting import pressures from other producer countries (e.g. wheat from US). Hence, a balanced approach for “regulated imports” is required to ensure sufficient stock availability in the open market as well as the public distribution scheme to prevent steep price hikes.
Another step that can be taken to tackle this problem is better system to monitor what the middle men i.e. the retailers do. The price at which vegetables and food grains are bought (by commission agents and traders) is monitored by government agencies like Agricultural Produce Market Committee but buying by retailers and semi-wholesalers is not. The government must step in and actively encourage agencies such as NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India) to retail onions at reasonable prices so that the unusual mark-up being done by the retail sector is blunted.
