The Planning Commission is trying to impress upon the Government the need to refocus on commercial viability of agriculture, food security and role of land in productive processes.

Dr Pronab Sen, principal advisor, Planning Commission, responding to a Business Line query at a function, organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce, here on Thursday said that the Commission was bringing back the focus on agricultural entrepreneurship, marketing of the produce and land related issues to “unleash raw power” of free enterprise as well as “mitigation of business cycle behaviour”.

“We have been talking for year. Yet precious little has been achieved (on the ground). The land has always been undervalued,” Dr Sen asserted.

At the heart of it all was the change in mindset, he felt. At the level of States, the importance of marketing of agricultural produce had never been understood. “The Mandis (large markets) have been on the policy radar. Data from the hats (small village markets) never adequately reached the policy makers.

“The Governments did not share commercial information with the stakeholders. For example, of the few States, which amended their Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) Act, most did not even inform farmers of the change,” he said.

The warehouse receipts have been made negotiable instruments, but there was no platform for trading the instruments, he added. “Rural land market does not exist. Farm land is not considered as a productive asset even when an industrial unit buys it”.

He further said food inflation in recent years has hurt the poor most. “The bottom of the economic pyramid must be protected” in the inclusive growth model that the country has adopted, Dr Sen stated.

jayanta_mallick@thehindu.co.in

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