From droughts to floods, Indian agriculture has been battered for the last two years. Rising prices of pulses is adding to the plight of consumers. In an interview to Bloomberg TV India, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal outlines the challenges Indian farmers are confronting. She outlined the crucial role of the food processing industry to cut wastage, offer remunerative prices to farmers and ensure adequate supplies to consumers.
The agriculture sector is under stress after two consecutive years of bad monsoon. What is the sense you are getting from the hinterland? What’s the outlook for agriculture output and prices?
I won’t just say two years, I would say a couple of seasons. While global warming is affecting everybody, the way it is affecting the farmers more drastically. If you take just this year as an example, you have States where there is flooding, in Tamil Nadu and now Andhra Pradesh, while parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are drought-hit at the same time.
You have my State (Punjab) that has seen a pest attack due to the change of season. So we see various factors impacting farmers. Farmers’ lives have already become difficult because the cost of inputs has been going up regularly and the output is not giving them the kind of benefits and remuneration that they need and deserve. Added to this, when we have the weather gods playing havoc. You can imagine the plight of the farmer — it is enough to drive him to suicide. It’s making things really tough. Credit goes to the farmer that production has been going up. If you look at the last decade, every year production of cereals has increased by five million tonne in spite of the challenges, which says a lot for the farmers.
If you look at horticulture produce, it has increased even more than that of cereals. So, our farmer is doing his bit while facing the challenges. But, at the same time, wastages are really high — from the harvest to the transportation levels. The consumer, on the other hand, is facing inflation. So we have a lot of challenges, not just in ensuring adequate supply to meet the demand of a growing population but also ensuring food security. The landholdings that grow food are decreasing and a lot of food that is being produced is being wasted because of the lack of infrastructure (for storage and processing).
Prices of pulses are again going up and fanning inflation. What correctives are you contemplating?
The prices of pulses and all other perishables usually spike during the monsoon and winter seasons (August-December). Pulses are important in our country. One of the steps that our government has taken is to give an additional support over and above the minimum support price (MSP). Besides increasing the MSP, we are giving an additional ₹200 per tonne for pulses. If you see the impact on the ground this year, there’s been a lot more cultivation of pulses, which is one way of reducing imports and ensuring that in-house production is enough.
So, the government keeps taking such steps from time to time depending on the demand. Unfortunately, one of the reasons why prices go up during the monsoon and winter seasons is that there is a glut in the market and a lot of that rots because the processing facilities are not close enough for the farmer to ensure that he can process it and save that food. That’s why why I feel the food-processing industry can play a catalytic role in ensuring the income of farmers.
Now the farmer often has to dispose the produce on the roadside or leave it in his farm because it’s not worthwhile for him or his wife to take it to the nearest market. But if he could get it to the processing industry, it would bring down the wastages, the farmer would get value for his produce, and the consumer will not have to face the price spikes because there would be processed food available at the same price.