[ad_1]
“The open-ended procurement of rice and wheat at minimal help costs acts as a disincentive for diversification in direction of high-value and riskier crops,” it mentioned in a report submitted to the Aayog on Thursday.
“It’s, subsequently, vital to re-think in regards to the coverage of open-ended procurement, and limit the procurement of rice and wheat to the necessities of the nation’s meals safety and welfare schemes,” it mentioned, suggesting that farmers be compensated by means of value deficiency schemes for the extra market surplus. “In the event that they diversify away from rice and wheat, they are often compensated for the income foregone from these, if any.”
The 23-member working group on crop husbandry, agriculture inputs, demand and provide, arrange by the Aayog in 2022 underneath PS Birthal, director, ICAR-NIAP, was tasked to review and analyse the traits in demand and provide of main meals commodities and study the altering shopper preferences for meals and associated objects by 2047 and make appropriate suggestions.
The opposite suggestions of the working group included evolving economically possible cropping patterns suited to the useful resource endowments to fulfill the disproportionate enhance within the demand for fruits, greens, pulses, edible oils, nutri-cereals and maize in comparison with rice and wheat,
In addition to, it advised aggressive funding in infrastructure required for perishable commodities to keep away from post-harvest losses and scale back excessive value volatility by means of non-public funding. “Promote millet consumption and manufacturing, scale back consumption of edible oils which is greater than its really helpful consumption and will adversely have an effect on human well being and improve pulses manufacturing,” it mentioned. In accordance with the report, pulses will stay one of many key elements of the Indian weight loss plan, at the same time as manufacturing stays decrease than the demand. “There’s a want for a technological breakthrough in pulses, and for exploring prospects of their cultivation in rice-fallow areas,” it mentioned.
The working group mentioned that with the sustained rise in per capita earnings, altering life and growing shopper preferences for nutritious meals, the consumption basket will proceed to diversify away from staple cereals in direction of high-value meals commodities.
