Food security experts to submit action plan to new NDA govt.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Setting an agenda for food security with focus on toxic chemicals-free organic farming, noted trade and food security experts led by Vandana Shiva and Devinder Sharma are on a mission to prepare a comprehensive action plan on food security, which will be presented to the new government at the Centre.

"We must have a national mission to grow more food. When every fourth Indian is hungry and every second child is malnourished, we have a major food and nutrition crisis. Growing more of Monsanto's Bt Cotton or hybrid corn is not a solution to hunger," said Vandana Shiva.

"We must lower costs of production to reduce farmers' debt and suicides - 2, 84,000 suicides is an emergency and it should be addressed as one. This means organic farming which is good for the environment and people's health should be encouraged. Instead of bringing in big corporations through FDI in retail, we must create diversified markets, to promote fresh food. Every village, every town must have farmers markets to get rid of the middle men - including the corporates," she added.

"If corporate lobbyists and neo liberal economists have their way, the new government's food and agriculture policies will be a clone of the policies of the UPA government. We will have more farmers' suicides, more unemployment, higher food prices, junk food and disease. Crisis of prices and jobs will deepen, " said Vandana Shiva.

Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma, who chairs the New Delhi-based forum for biotechnology and food security, said any move to reduce import duties on fruits, vegetables and dairy products so as to augment supplies would ruin the market for indigenous products and affect the livelihood of farmers here. "Import duty cut is what the European Union is demanding under the on-going EU-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

It will only flood India with cheaper and highly subsidized imports," he said.

"Higher import duty on imports with subsidies to farmers and setting up an income commission to ensure income to farmers, should form part of the new government's food security, agriculture and trade policy," said Devinder Sharma.

"Ensuring a corruption-free Food Corporation of India (FCI) regime, an effective public distribution system, insulating farmers from vagaries of agrarian crisis by offering fair price, income guarantee for farmers and sustainable agro-ecological farming to ensure safe food free from toxic chemicals for consumers should be the agenda for the action plan on food security by the new government," said Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture steering committee member Sridhar Radhakrishnan.

While, Vignana Bharathi's national science movement secretary general A Jaikumar said a meeting was held with food security experts including Vandana Shiva last week to chalk out a background paper on the action plan, which would set the agenda for a new paradigm shift towards food and agriculture security.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com