To devise an effective food management policy, a more comprehensive approach is needed in addition to the food release mechanism outlined above. Any stock has two channels — inflow and outflow. In the food economy these can be understood as procurement and release respectively. When the outflow is clogged or shows a lower rate than the inflow, then stocks accumulate. Consequently, these accumulated stocks (with the government) put an upward pressure on the market prices as the supply in the market place goes down. Notwithstanding the importance of using the stocks to stabilise prices, there is a need to focus on alternate ways of regulating the inflow. We need to rethink about the most important policy instrument — the price policy.
Up to the early 1990s India had a dual pricing system — MSP and procurement prices. MSP is a floor price mainly intended to be a signalling device to the farmer and is announced before the sowing season. This is a cost-plus pricing strategy mainly based on the cost of production among other factors. On the other hand, the procurement price is mainly for acquiring grain for building up the stocks — buffer and operational stocks for PDS and other welfare programmes. Procurement price is announced before the harvest season and is not related to production costs but to factors such as prevailing prices, existing government stocks among others.
In the early 1990s, the procurement price was abolished and presently MSP serves as the de facto procurement price. This led to a continually increasing MSP because of the rising costs of production. Since MSP is also the procurement price, this led to an increase in government procurement, which is resulting in episodes of large stocks as in 2002 and presently. Since the MSP is also linked to the issue price of the PDS, MSP has implications for the offtake from the PDS. A reintroduction of procurement price, therefore, needs to be given fresh consideration as a policy option. In fact, the PM’s Economic Advisory Council had recommended this in 2008 (ET, Sept 8, 2008).
The other policy option, perhaps a little difficult to implement at this stage, is the system of deficiency payments. In this system, a MSP is announced in the usual way. After the build-up of the desired stock level, thedifference between the MSP and the market price is paid directly to the farmer as a deficiency payment whenever the market price falls below MSP. This has the advantage of precluding the need for stocking on government account without adversely affecting the farmer’s incentive structure. Also, this eliminates the grain resiphoning .
Another advantage is that through this system, price support can be extended to all the remaining commodities (other than rice and wheat), for which MSP is announced but little or no procurement takes place. There are about 22 such commodities at present. This can also help the states where FCI is not active in procurement. The deficiency payments system, which has worked well in many countries including the US for a long time, deserves a closer look. Perhaps, to start with it can be launched on a small scale in some states where procurement is not presently carried out.
In addition to reforms of the price policy, efforts should be focused on improving the storage and warehousing facilities. As regards food release mechanism, Prof Basu’s suggestion of releasing food to large number of traders in small lots is essential but care should be taken to avoid collusion among traders. Another reform needed immediately is of PDS. Beneficiary selection, diversion of foodgrain and inferior quality of foodgrain are some of the major problems with PDS.
Perhaps, food stamp programme may need a look-in here. Studies have shown that foodgrain diversion and adulteration are linked to the gap between the market price and the PDS issue price. Since the issue price is, in turn, linked to the MSP, it is clear that the inflow, outflow, stock build-up and diversion from PDS are all interlinked. It is time for taking a comprehensive view of the price policy, procurement policy, storage and release mechanism, and PDS, rather than treating agriculture and food as separate components of the economy.
(The author is associate professor, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi)