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Kerala titled most food-deficient state in country,as per Review
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,May12
According to reports,the State produces hardly 15 per cent of its food needs. It has become accustomed to being dependent on Central cereal supplies and market purchases from the neighbouring regions. The acreage under rice, the people’s staple diet, has been dwindling at an alarming rate over the past three or four decades due to various reasons.
The nation’s food policy had provided Kerala a measure of security in the past. Adequate supply of rice and wheat reached the State through the public distribution system. But, the supply of rice to the State from the Centre is now only a fourth of what it was at the beginning of this decade.This year, there were even restrictions in the movement of rice to the State from key markets in the neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh. Rice production in all the southern States has either come down or stagnated during the last five years, according to the latest Economic Survey published by the Planning Commission. This has put pressure on the availability of rice in the region as a whole.
Be prepared
This situation was not entirely unexpected. The Economic Review for 2007, prepared by the State Planning Board, had discussed in detail the global and national trend in food availability and found that Kerala, the most food-deficient State in the country, would have to face some difficulties in the coming days.
In other words, the planners had warned that, as matters were evolving, Kerala would find its food bill shooting up and income from cash crops (in relative terms) going down.“This is a situation for which we have to be prepared,” the Review said. “Putting pressure on the Centre for adequate supplies of foodgrains and keeping the public distribution system going must constitute one part of our effort; reviving Kerala’s food economy so that a modicum of food security is provided to the State must constitute the other part.”
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