<div><em><strong>Sutanu Guru </strong>examines if the current regime is even trying to change the policy paradigm</em></div><div> </div><div>Since exit polls for Bihar elections, Chotta Rajan, Intolerance and maybe yet another loony remark by a card carrying member of the Sangh Parivar will dominate the headlines, this piece of news will not get a lot of traction. Yet, it appears significant on the face of it. On November 5, the Union Cabinet accepted recommendations made by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices related to maximum support prices for the coming Rabi season. The MSP for the dominant crop wheat has been raised by Rs 75 per quintal, a 5.2 per cent rise from Rs 1,450 to Rs 1,525 per quintal. More importantly, the Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the CACP for really big increases in the MSP of pulses. For both gram and masoor that are sown during the Rabi season, the MSP hike recommended by the CACP is Rs 250 per quintal. The Cabinet has gone two steps ahead of the CACP. First, it has added a "bonus" of Rs 75 per quintal to the MSP. Second, it has instructed the Food Corporation of India and other procurement agencies to procure both gram and masoor at recommended prices plus bonus.</div><div> </div><div>Even a duffer can figure out the reason behind this steep hike in the MSP of pulses. Alarmingly high prices of pulses, with that of arhar dal crossing Rs 200 per kg at one stage, have caused severe embarrassment to the Narendra Modi government. The hope is that the big increase in the MSP along with the promise of FCI procurement will send the right signals to farmers who would hopefully increase the area under cultivation for pulses. A long running critique has been that successive governments have paid scant attention to crops like pulses even as they have constantly encouraged farmers to grow more wheat and rice.</div><div> </div><div>Hard data show the long term consequences of this neglect. The total pulses output in 1970-71 in India was 11.8 million tons. After two decades of Green Revolution, the output had gone up to 14.3 million tons. Shockingly, the total output in 2000-01 was below the output achieved 30 years ago at 11 million tons. During the same period, the wheat output had gone up five times and that of potato by about 10 times. It is only in the last decade and half that one has seen a sustained, if modest rise in pulses output. But one bad monsoon and the gains vanish. In 2013-14, there were encouraging signs when the output of pulses rose to about 19.5 million tons. But then, there was a drought next year and output declined to about 17.2 million tons in 2014-15. With the monsoons failing in large parts of the country even this year, one expect another year of low output. Of course, policy makers are hoping that the high MSP will lead to at least a better Rabi crop.</div><div> </div><div>But this can at best be described as fire fighting in terms of agriculture policy. One of the promises made by NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign was to take concrete policy steps to address the deep crisis in Indian agriculture. So far, one hasn't seen any bold and transformational moves in the last 18 months. </div>
