Planners want pragmatic approach

New Delhi, Feb. 8: The Planning Commission has recommended a “pragmatic” approach to the policy of food zones in the Fourth Plan, depending on the actual production and the level of prices in a particular year.

The Commission feels that zonal restrictions must be regarded as a purely temporary device in a situation of shortage, and should be relaxed as an when necessary.

With the emergence of surpluses and the building up of a buffer stock, the need for zonal restrictions should gradually diminish.

The buffer stock target for the Fourth Plan has been put by the Commission at five million tonnes, against seven million tonnes recommended by the Agricultural Prices Commission.

It is felt that buffer stock operations are pretty costly and a higher target would mean tying up scarce resources which could be used for productive investment.

Even to finance a five- milliontonne buffer, the outlay needed in the Fourth Plan is estimated at Rs. 260 crores.

A lower buffer stock target is also favoured on the expectation that with the concentration of the high- yielding varieties programme in areas with assured irrigation and rainfall, the fluctuations in food output due to the vagaries of the weather would not be as intense as in the previous years.