Sugar is getting "bitter" day by day because of the galloping prices for this commodity in the market. While the blame game goes on regarding who is responsible for this fiasco, there does not appear to be any relief to the "aam aadmi" from this unbearable burden on his food budget. Probably GOI's inscrutable Minister for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs may be preparing to offer his valuable "advice" to the consumers, he does not feel burdened by his incapability to rein in the prices through administrative action giving a free hand to the hoarders and black marketeers.
"In the administrative price regime, what happens is that you can increase the MSP and in case of sugarcane the statutory minimum price and the state advised price, and now the fair and remunerative prices that is being talked about, all these can go up. They don't go down. Sugar prices can go up and down. But the cane prices are stuck. If the state advised price for example in 2007-08 was high and farmers produced a lot of sugarcane and then there was shortage of wheat, if you recall we imported six million tonnes of wheat that year, and then there is a knee jerk reaction from the government policymakers and we increased the MSP for wheat by more than 30% in a single year. So farmers switch away from sugar cane to wheat. So this is a typical three-year cycle. What is happening today in sugarcane the prices today that UP farmers are getting are going to Rs 240 per quintal, you can bet that within two years there will be a glut of sugar in this country and shortage of wheat again".
It is unfortunate that GOI does not have a long term vision for food production in the country and periodic tinkering with the policy can only yield periodic crisis in the food front like the present one. As for sugar it may be a blessing in disguise if such high prices act as a break to increasing sugar consumption, considered unhealthy and unnecessary for which country may well remember the "Minister"! But if the same week kneed policy is pursued with regard to staples, it may spell doom for the country and the "Minister". It was not too long ago that the same Minister advised the consumer to be prepared for significant increase in milk prices, in stead of taking action to preempt such a contingency.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
It is unfortunate that GOI does not have a long term vision for food production in the country and periodic tinkering with the policy can only yield periodic crisis in the food front like the present one. As for sugar it may be a blessing in disguise if such high prices act as a break to increasing sugar consumption, considered unhealthy and unnecessary for which country may well remember the "Minister"! But if the same week kneed policy is pursued with regard to staples, it may spell doom for the country and the "Minister". It was not too long ago that the same Minister advised the consumer to be prepared for significant increase in milk prices, in stead of taking action to preempt such a contingency.
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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