The expenditure on agriculture in research and development needs to be increased to provide food security at various levels in the country. Comment (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
A substantial part of the food subsidy was being put under the carpet by increasing the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) borrowings these had crossed Rs 3 lakh crore.
Reasons
· There is a huge bias towards subsidies for food and fertiliser.
· The allocation for agri-R&D is a meagre Rs 8,514 crore in FY 2021-22 against a RE of Rs 7,762 crore in FY 2020-21.
· In the case of the fertiliser subsidy again, massive subsidisation of urea, to the tune of almost 70 per cent of its cost, is leading to its sub-optimal usage.
· It is time to move towards direct cash transfers to farmers based on a per hectare basis and free up prices of fertilisers.
· This will help reduce leakages and imbalance in NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) usage and lead to efficiency, equity and environmental sustainability.
· Overall, the expenditure on agri-R&D needs to be doubled or even tripled in next three years, if growth in agriculture has to provide food security and subsidies on food and fertilisers need to be contained.
Consequences
· Increased productivity of food crops.
· Diversified food grains reach poor households thus reducing malnutrition and stunting of children.
· Optimal utilisation of resources.
sivasree 4 years
kindly review
IAS Parliament 4 years
Need better understanding. Try to mention about expenditures on subsidy, less expenditure allocated for R&D, then importance of R&D. Keep Writing.
Dev 4 years
Please Review and Provide Feedback
IAS Parliament 4 years
Try to include about the importance of spending on Research and development. Keep Writing.
