INDIA ASKS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
TO REDUCE DOMESTIC SUPPORT
TO AGRICULTURE
India has called
upon the developed countries to effect a substantial and real
reduction in the domestic support, provided by them to their agriculture.
Addressing the thirty-second session of the Conference of the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome today, the Agriculture
Minister Shri Rajnath Singh also called for a genuine differential
treatment to the developing countries to address their special
concerns. He warned that any agreement on agriculture which does
not take care of the concerns of small and marginal farmers in
the developing countries would endanger their livelihood and food
security. The Minister expressed disappointment over the outcome
of the WTO Ministerial Conference at Cancun and regretted that
adequate cognizance had not been taken of the interests of farmers,
particularly small landholders in the developing countries. Shri
Rajnath Singh pointed out that in globalized agriculture, domestic
market prices for agricultural products are largely governed by
prevailing prices in the international market. International prices
of almost all agricultural commodities are distorted on account
of huge domestic support and export subsidies provided by the
developed countries to their agriculture. Due to these subsidies,
the international prices get depressed and competitiveness of
farmers in countries like India gets adversely affected, threatening
their livelihood. Due to resource constraints, the developing
countries cannot match the subsidies provided by the developed
countries to their farmers. The only option available to these
countries is to provide protection to their farmers through the
mechanism of tariff.
The Minister
informed the Conference about India’s experience in managing last
year’s unprecedented drought, which affected over 300 million
people. Nearly a billion mandays were generated in eight months
and nine million tons of food grains were distributed. Interventions
were made for provision of drinking water, cattle care and movement
of food grains, entailing an expenditure of more than 4 billion
US dollars. India could tackle the adversity, largely due to its
self-sufficiency in agricultural production. Shri Rajnath Singh
said that India has put added emphasis on developing watersheds
as units of crop diversification and development of horticulture
to ensure sustained development of agriculture.
Shri Rajnath Singh
pledged India’s continued support to the FAO in achieving its
objective of global food and nutritional security and raising
the standards of living of farmers.
The 12-day FAO
Conference began on the 29th of last month. It is being
attended by Agriculture Ministers from around the world.
