Food for thought

Brahmana Bhojanapriya: — so goes an adage in Sanskrit. But, I consider everyone as a bhojanapriya (lover of food). No, this is not going to be a churn-out-a-new recipe post. And, sitting in the Commodities desk, I cannot but crib about the crop prospects and monsoonal vagaries. and, I'm not gonna give any big numbers (like most typical biz journos. Hope our 'thala' takes it in the lighter vein!).
Weather plays a prime role in any crop harvest and so let's connect weather systems with foodgrain output first. Let’s look at the global scenario: hot summer (unusually) in the US (lower supplies of corn, rice wheat), drought in Russia, Brazil (hitting grains), heavy rains wreaking havoc in Canada and Europe (affecting grain and oilseed crops to a large extent).
A global food crisis situation looms large. As soon as the US’ corn stockpiles hit a 14-yr low, prices hit the upper circuit at Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the world’s biggest futures exchange and as such, prices of agri commodities rose in tandem in Europe. If this price rise continues, food inflation woes will get worser. And this is likely to be aggravated by the entry of speculators who may push up the prices further.
Coming to India, we are, this year, blessed with one of our best agricultural years and record grain stocks. But the blessing seems to have a great flaw — inefficient food management system. We are saddled with a double-digit food inflation while a huge chunk of foodgrains rot in public warehouses. Rigid formulae and archaic rules (such as the disbursement of grain to States thro’ PDS a year is based on the average offtake for the preceeding three years. This was actually framed to release the grains ca
refully during times of shortage. But now, this seems to be an outdated law but yet it prevails) hinder the govt to quickly release grain to overcome crisis situations. Although the Economic Survey and experts like Pronab Sen offer a handy solution in the form of food coupons, again, one wonders whether it will be as successful here in India as in other developing countries given our inefficient and not-so-transparent governance!