Review rice, wheat procurement policy: NITI

A NITI Aayog working group on agriculture has suggested the government re-visit its open-ended procurement policy for rice and wheat at minimum support prices to dissuade farmers from growing these crops and instead move to other crops like nutri-cereals, pulses and edible oil as their demand could surpass production by 2047.

“The open-ended procurement of rice and wheat at minimum support prices acts as a disincentive for diversification towards high-value and riskier crops,” it said in its report submitted to the Aayog on Thursday.

“It is, therefore, important to re-think about the policy of open-ended procurement, and restrict the procurement of rice and wheat to the requirements of the country’s food security and welfare schemes,” it said, suggesting to compensate farmers through price deficiency schemes for the additional market surplus.

“If they diversify away from rice and wheat, they can be compensated for the revenue foregone from these, if any,” it added.

The 23-member working group on crop husbandry, agriculture inputs, demand and supply, set up by the Aayog in 2022 under PS Birthal, director, ICAR-NIAP, was tasked to study and analyze the trends in demand and supply of major food commodities and examine the changing consumer preferences for food and related items by 2047 and make suitable recommendations.

The other recommendations of the working group include evolving economically feasible cropping patterns suited to the resource endowments to meet the disproportionate increase in the demand for fruits, vegetables, pulses, edible oils, nutri-cereals and maize compared to rice and wheat.

Besides, it has suggested the need for aggressive investment in infrastructure required for perishable commodities to avoid post-harvest losses and reduce high price volatility through private investment.

“Promote millet consumption and production, reduce consumption of edible oils which is more than its recommended intake and may adversely affect human health and enhance pulses production,” it said.

According to the report, pulses will remain one of the key components of the Indian diet and its production remains short of the demand. “There is a need for a technological breakthrough in pulses, and for exploring possibilities of their cultivation in rice-fallow areas,” it suggested.

The working group is of the view that with the sustained rise in per capita income, changing lifestyles, and increasing consumer preferences for nutritious foods, the consumption basket will continue to diversify away from staple cereals towards high-value food commodities.

The group has estimated demand for foodgrains in the business as usual scenario to 402 million tonnes in 2047-48, and to 415-437 million tonnes in high income growth (HIG) scenario with growth in demand for maize, pulses and nutri-cereals will be higher as compared to rice and wheat. In 2021-22, India produced 330 million tonnes of foodgrains.

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