PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 845
Well, Sir, that may be one kind of approach, different though it may be from the line of approach which some of us take. The question I think that we have to ask with regard to this attitude is this : Which is going to benefit the people quickly ? So far as this subsidy for the grow more food policy is concerned, I do not think that it could be contended by the Government that that subsidy has been of any consequence so far as the production of food is concerned. I think it is not necessary for Members of the Opposition to cite any authority when we know as a matter of fact that the Reserve Bank, in one of the investigations which it undertook, reported that the grow more food policy has been a complete failure. Obviously, therefore, the policy of not giving subsidy to the consumer, but giving it to the producer, has not produced the effect desired by the Hon. Finance Minister.
The second thing which I find why this emphasis on the grow more food has failed is because of the contradictory policy which the Food Department or the Government of India, has been following. On the one hand, they have been giving subsidy to farmers and others to provide more food. At the same time, they are giving encouragement for the production of what are called cash crops, which are every moment competing with the production of food. A farmer finds it much more to his advantage to produce cotton-seeds, black pepper and things of that sort. He does not care for the growing of more food. Surely, if the Government’s objective—and firm objective—is to produce food, Government ought to have taken some steps in order to curb the tendency on the part of the farmers to produce something other than food. That, Government has not done. The result is that we have in this country two competing economic activities so far as agriculture is concerned, the cash crops versus food production.
The result is that notwithstanding the Grow More Food Campaign and the amount of money that has been spent, we have not been able to produce more food so as to make any impression upon the food prices. The question that I would like to ask the Hon. the Finance Minister is this. Would he or would he not realise that if his object is to reduce prices by the production of more food, and if that object has failed,