What percentage of our food grains and other essential agricultural commodities are imported, Mr Sibal? The fact is that policy makers and decision makers for too long have imported ideas and strategies from outside. Will they look at this country while going for agri planning? Successive Govts. lived in a dream called Green Revolution. This dream was designed to be shattered. A wheat revolution based on high inputs can not be called a green revolution. Pulses production in this country has been stagnant for the last six decades. Oilseeds producers were not encouraged. Rather a huge amount of land was diverted to soyabean to meet the needs of the export market. Now we are going for biofuels with govt land and money. If two blocks in Nashik produces more than 50% of country's onion, what will happen?We need an integrated strategy that is based on a proper understanding of our food basket in a micro setting and our ancesters' agri strategy where every locality produced something of everying that is consumed in that locality. There was never a complete dependence in any region. In the simplification, uniformity, easy access to so called extension services, we have destroyed the very ethos of Indian agriculture. Rising food prices is a culmination of this process.
