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"Food
for thought
The international
economic pressures of that time coupled with some domestic
political compulsions made us, as a country, shift our focus of
development and concern, away from the rural economy and rural
society, away from agriculture and food production to
manufacture, commerce and services, away from a concern for the
dignity and well being of those who produce the food for our
people to a concern for those who came to the cities and towns
to be engaged in non - farm employment.
“We opened our doors so wide to the global market forces, that
while we reaped several of the benefits of globalization, we
failed at the same time to protect several of our national
interests, - in particular, those relating to our food security
- from the negative impact of the global market. The earlier
development goal of self reliance in food which we had almost
reached, and in some years even exceeded, was severely weakened
as my country gradually opened even the production and supply of
our food requirements to the free play of global and domestic
market forces.”
‘We needed a change in our policy on development. We have
therefore launched an integrated national drive called Api
Vavamu Rata Nagamu meaning, ‘Grow more food towards prosperity’,
through which all arable lands in the country are being brought
under cultivation. At the same time, during the last two years,
we have provided a substantial fertilizer subsidy to rice
farmers, at a huge cost to the government, to increase farm
productivity.
This is continuing despite ever increasing global
fertilizer prices and I must say that this bold initiative has
paid significant dividends in terms of enhanced production." |
