Back to basics

This refers to the column “Some lessons from the corona crisis” (July 14). It should not have taken a Covid for this nation to rediscover that we are essentially an agrarian economy. Decades of ad hoc and knee-jerk policies on agro production, their storage capacity, distribution and exports were translating into excess grain reserves since as far back as 1995. The pity of it all, grains were wasted in shoddy storage, and an unimaginative distribution and pricing set-up; then denied its reach to the deserving poor.

On April 1, 2020, stocks in the central pool stood at 73.85 million tonnes (MT), the highest ever, against a reserve requirement of just 21.04 MT. This should help feed the common man for months now.

Pulled up by Covid, we are sure to sustain a new-found respect for this foundational sector of our economy. The reserve levels are certain to be scaled up and so would the creation of more modern and efficient storage capacities and attendant infrastructure and employment-centric initiatives. Significantly, procurement during this harvest season was prompt and harvesting was imaginatively done by the states, despite non-availability of labour. Bureaucracy must ensure that this singular efficiency in decision making and in owning up to a problem would become the new norm to give a fillip to rural stakeholders.

Once the thrust reverts to the agro sector, the economy must shift to rural epicentre, buttressed by auxiliary industries such as food processing. Post Covid, a reverse migration of a huge number of non-resident Indians is imminent and an expanded rural economy alone can accommodate the surge. The pandemic has given us a sharp cue for the dispersal of wealth and consumption into rural heartlands as an enduring policy of inclusive development.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai