Food Inflation

Riding on the back of rising prices of staple items like potatoes, onions and pulses, food inflation rose to 14.55 per cent in the first week of November in India. In what could give a sense of sky rocketing of food prices, there is no item on the list considered in the data that has shown a declining trend on a yearly basis. I think now the governments need to do two things: invest in the productive capacity of agriculture and improve the operation of food markets. So far they have done one but not the other and this is the need of the hour to check food prices going up.

In a recent article published in 'The Economist' on ‘How to feed the world’, it has been mentioned that it may be too late to avoid another bout of price rises. Despite a global recession and the largest grain harvest on record in 2008, food prices are heading up again. Boosting world food production without gobbling up land and water will also require technology to play a larger role in the coming years. Between now and 2050 the world’s population will rise by a third, but demand for agricultural goods will rise by 70%. But this will have to happen without farmers clearing large amounts of new land as there is very little scope for expansion.

So now it is the time to rethink!!!