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Game of Grains:

Why Indias agri-food policies

need a holistic review
by Raghavan Sampathkumar, SmartAgBiz, Singapore

Milling and Grain has invited Raghavan Sampathkumar, an agribusiness professional, based in Singapore, to
provide an overview of changing food policies on the food basket in developing countries such as India.
Mr Sampathkumar analyses key trends in the global agri-food sector and writes commentaries and columns
related to food prices, food crisis, sustainability, hunger and poverty

he term food basket here in India

actually means a real basket that an
average Indian homemaker takes to
shop for groceries and food. Some
decades ago, her basket (nowadays,
his too), will contain plenty of
vegetables, small millets and a rich
variety of leafy greens in addition to
staple grains, such as rice and wheat.
However, many of the above items had been vanishing, albeit
slowly from the food basket, and most of these are not even
known to the millennials and Gen X.
Even the older generation, that is popularly called as the
baby boomers, and who used to consume these diverse
foodstuffs everyday had, to a large extent, forgotten them. The
transformation of diet in India over the past few decades is mindblowing in the extreme and disturbing to boot.
In this article I would like to discus the key macro trends in the
consumption of select food crops in India; possible causes of the
transformation of diets; potential impacts on health and wellbeing
and, finally, the importance of enabling policies that can augment
not only food but the nutritional security of a country.
Although this analysis is primarily related to India, the
recommendations and implications can be applied to any country
that shares a similar agrarian, demographic and socio-economic
profile.

Is shrinking diet diversity a serious concern?

If one might think how relevant or important diversity in diets

is - that is, the different types of commodities and foods that
supply nutrients - then they should consider this. In a recent study
34 | Milling and Grain

on how and from where population in different countries derive

their calories revealed that in the past 50 years, more and more
countries became dependent on fewer crops.
In other words, diets of majority of people in several countries
across the globe are becoming homogeneous and the dependence
on few key crops such as wheat, maize (corn) and soybean.
If harvests in any of the major regions that produce these crops
face adverse weather, the ramifications go deeper and wider
across the globe. Prices tend to soar, and producing countries may
take knee-jerk reactive measures to curb trade which will further
strangle global availability.
Any increase in food prices will push millions deep or deeper
into hunger and poverty, particularly in the low-income food
deficit countries in Asia and Africa. These issues may cause
social unrest and may lead to unexpected situations like the recent
Arab Spring.

Possible causes impacting diet diversity

Rising disposable incomes in tandem with economic growth are

driving dietary changes particularly in favour of animal protein
which in turn drives enormous growth in corn and soybean
sectors.
The much-celebrated middle-class boom in Asia where more
than a couple of hundred million people came out of abject
poverty in the last three decades and growing affluence in
the middle-to-high income socio-economic classes have also
contributed significantly to this phenomenon.
However, these few major crops have gradually been replacing
a huge variety of traditional and indigenous food crops across the
world.
For example, in India, there used to be a time when minor

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millets, such as ragi (finger millet), cumbu (pearl millet) and
foods like cassava, were important parts of regular everyday diets
but were eventually replaced, over several decades, with food
products derived from wheat, rice and/or corn.
As incomes rise, diets undergo faster and greater transformation
and in the race to be affordable and available, obviously some
food crops get sidelined.
Economists are conveniently blaming the countrys impressive
economic growth and claim that people tend to move ahead
to consume more food items that are perceived rich and less
of those foods that are perceived inferior - but by no means
nutritionally!
However, what these statistics do not reveal is the resulting
impacts on human health, nutritional wellbeing and eventually
productivity of the generation that misses out on important
sources of nutrients from these diverse food crops.

Policy hi-jacking: Marginalisation of non-strategic

crops

If one asks whether Indias green revolution has helped the

country to achieve self-sufficiency in food, the obvious answer
from the people of the highest echelons of policy making and
politics would be a chest-thumping yes.
But, in truth, what was happening was literally policy hijacking by few groups with vested interests and the intent to
maintain their status quo under the guise of augmenting food
security.
In the process, nutritional security, health and wellbeing of the
population have become collateral damages.
Apart from minor millets, one of the biggest casualties

happened to be pulses, possibly the most important sources of

protein for majority of Indians. Following are some of the reasons
that caused or hastened marginalization of pulses.
First, unsupportive silo policies that are skewed and became
more favourable towards few crops such as rice and wheat.
However, the difference between growth in maize and soybean
versus rice and wheat is that the latter duo are primarily policydriven while the former are market or demand-driven, mainly

Rising disposable incomes

in tandem with economic
growth are driving dietary
changes particularly in favour
of animal protein which in
turn drives enormous growth
in corn and soybean sectors
from the meat sector. Major portion of the animal feed consists of
maize and soybean as raw materials.
Lack of appropriate support mechanisms including
procurement; sufficient marketing opportunities beyond
Government agencies; policies that hinder involvement of private
players in sourcing directly from farmers; lack of processing
infrastructure and value addition are some of the factors that

August 2015 | 35

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discourage farmers to take up any other crops unless there are
absolutely no choices.
There is an entrenched belief that minimum support prices
(MSP), that are increased every year for these minor crops, will
motivate farmers to take up cultivation.
Unfortunately, that belief has been proven wrong at least in the
case of pulses since domestic production has been languishing
despite significant increases in MSP up to 87 percent over the
last four years for some crops like pigeon pea.
If anyone claims lack of demand from the consumers for pulses
as the cause for the negligible growth in production, the numbers
speak by themselves. Indias pulses imports have grown over
the last four years from nearly 15 percent in 2010-11 of the total
demand to reach 21 percent in 2012-13 before falling to nearly
17 percent in 2013-14.
However, what limits creating more demand is clear lack of
innovations in developing novel food products using pulses as
ingredients and dwindling research and development (R&D)
efforts and investments in this front.
Pulses, unfortunately, are perhaps the most under-utilised foods
considering their rich nutritional profile. In the developed world,
new market segments currently being explored with significant
interest are protein-rich products targeted at athletes and body
builders, and the partial replacement of cereals with pulse-based
ingredients in extruded food products (eg noodles, pasta, etc).
Other popular foods, including granola bars and breakfast foods,
have significant amount of pulses.
However, In India, research on these fronts has long been in
its nascent stages. Maize (corn) has undergone such a phase of
growth and exploration of unimaginable kinds of use options
and has become almost ubiquitous in several every day food
products. Similar efforts are needed to create demand for
pulses.
In a different perspective, questionable policies on fertiliser
pricing, particularly for nitrogen against other fertilisers, may
be a limiting factor for increasing pulses cultivation. Urea is
the cheapest of all fertilisers and an average farmer, without
understanding nutritional requirement and soil health will
obviously go for the cheapest fertiliser thinking it would result in
bountiful harvest.
However, all these not only worsen the already awkward
N-P-K ratio of the soil but impact the ecosystem, flora and fauna
particularly marine life due to loss of excessive nitrogen through
run off and leaching.
By taking a rational policy on this front will not only result in
encouraging pulses cultivation but also can help enhance soil
health, which is important from sustainability perspective.

Policy imperatives: Striking the right balance

A report from Indias National Council of Applied Economic

Research (NCAER) suggests that cereal-based food security
policies may not contribute significantly to achieve nutritional
security of the population.
However, if one digs deeper, it is evident that the recent Food
Security Act seems to indirectly support nothing but rice and
wheat. All the measures taken up under the act are seemingly
favouring these two crops while other minor cereals and pulses
are eventually getting further marginalised.
Given that the countrys protein consumption is miserably
stagnating at around 5057 grams-per-day over the last decade,
it is critical to give due importance to pulses and push through
conducive policies.
Indias unique strength in the coming decade is its demographic
dividend of having a median age of under 30 by the turn of the
36 | Milling and Grain

About the author

Raghavan Sampathkumar has worked 11 years in agro

commodities, agri-inputs, GM/biotech crops and animal
health and nutrition sectors across Asia-Pacific, and has an
understanding of the complex political, socio-economic,
environmental and cultural perspectives of the Ag-food value
chain.
In his role as a consultant he has worked in international
marketing with Saskatchewan Pulse Growers; as a freelancer
with companies such as Promar Consulting, Japan and
also in various capacities with reputed MNCs including
Monsanto. He is the founder and principal consultant in
SmartAgBiz, a boutique firm that focuses exclusively on
market research for agribusiness sector.
Mr Sampathkumar graduated with distinctions in his
Master of Agribusiness degree from University of Adelaide,
Australia, and is also an alumnus of TNAU, Coimbatore,
India. He regularly delivers lectures at various institutes.
vnsraghav@gmail.com
next decade. Food and balanced nutrition forms the basis of
human productivity and wellbeing and when these are not given
due consideration, the opportunity cost or lost, indeed, could
be detrimental to the economic prosperity of the country in the
coming decades.
Unjustifiable emphasis on rice and wheat resulted in a situation
where these two crops contributing the biggest chunk of calories
and protein. At a time when prices of pulses are surging, average
Indian middle-class households and the poorest of the poor are
the most affected as they usually spend more than half to twothirds of their monthly income on food.
Such rise in prices will cause huge cuts on consumption of
pulses.
Cheaper carbohydrates will eventually replace the amount of
protein from pulses and other foods in case of price spurts. It
could possibly one of the reasons behind the emergence of a
diabetes epidemic in the country.
It would not be a surprise if India, in the near future, pips China
to claim the notorious throne of the diabetic capital of the world
with more than 100 million people affected: It would become a
public health disaster of the century.
Although imports can help bridge the gap in demand, steps
must be taken to encourage domestic production in order to avoid
potential hostage-like situations particularly at times of limited
availability.
All it requires is a: vision beyond vested interests and vote-bank
concerns; strong political will to take concerted efforts in terms
of increased investments in R&D and infrastructure across the
value-chain; conducive and balanced policies that are based on
holistic understanding of the realities of the agri-food sector on
the ground.

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