New Delhi: Faced with a drought, and its damaging impact on food prices and the lives of farmers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been closely monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis, has now set up a crack team - a Group of Ministers on drought and food security.
To begin with, the team will look into how to control the damage caused by the failure of the Kharif season.
The GoM will be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had recently said there was no need to press the panic button on drought.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are the other members of the crack team.
Meanwhile, with monsoon failing across the country, sowing has come down by 20 per cent, with paddy being the worst hit. Paddy acreage is down by almost 60 lakh hectares mainly due to less rain in parts of UP, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal.
The All India Rice Millers Association said that rice production might drop by 30 per cent this Kharif season. This would work out to 60 million tonnes this year as against 85 million tonnes in 2008-09.
Already prices have started shooting up. Retail prices of food grain have gone up by as much as 32 per cent during June and July.
Prices of pulses, sugar, groundnut oil, tea and potato have gone up, according to analysis of 14 essential commodities collated by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
The retail price of tur, ruling at Rs 62 a kg in June, rose to Rs 82 a kg by the end of July. At present, tur sells for about Rs 90 a kg in many places across the country.
The alarm bells couldn't have rung louder. Eight of the Indian states, which are part of the grain bowl, have been declared drought-hit.
The states are Manipur, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh. Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and parts of Orissa too are fighting a grim situation. These states are also contemplating declaring themselves drought-hit.