Click to play videoNew Delhi: After sugar, it is the turn of the price of rice - staple for most of the country - to shoot up. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has sounded another dire warning at a meeting called to boost Rabi production.
"There has been shortfall of 6 million hectare in sowing of paddy and it is bound to have its adverse impact on production and consequently on availability of rice in the coming year," he said.
Just a couple of months ago, Sharad Pawar, had said that the country had adequate food stocks to last 13 months due to the record procurement of 25 million tons of wheat and 32 million. He also said that his ministry was working overtime to bring more area under rice cultivation.
The country is already reeling under the weight of high prices of basic food items. The price of pulses is hovering around Rs 100 per kilo, sugar prices have doubled since last year and the price of potato is Rs 40 per kilo - a heavy burden in a country where 830 million people live on a per capita expenditure of Rs 20 a day.
Agricultural experts now fear that Pawar's comments will only hike the import bill of rice should India need to go in for imports, even though basmati is still being exported.
Agricultural expert, Devendra Sharma says, "He did it first with sugar and how he is doing it again with rice. We will again pay a very high price for imports. There is no reason why he should have made such a statement."
The Government is already supporting a Rs 53,000 crore food subsidy which could now go up. The UPA's Right to Food Act could be the next casualty.
What has surprised many people is the timing of the minister's statement, when he more than anybody else knows that it can lead to hoarding, speculation and can drive up prices both nationally and internationally. For a country reeling under the high prices of pulses, sugar and vegetables, this can only make things worse.
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