‘India can be top wheat exporter ’

New Delhi, Aug 26: INDIA can fill the vacuum at the top of the wheat exporting segment, that will result after the WTO regime is fully implemented and subsidies are cut, provided it first removes hurdles in domestic trade, a top expert has said.

“Wheat exports of top three exporting nations - US, Canada and European Union- are sustained by heavy subsidies and there is a strong possibility of them being cut or drastically reduced, once WTO regime is fully implemented which would make their exports unviable,” Mr Gokul Patnaik, Agri-business Consultant and former Chairman of APEDA (Agriculture and Process Food Export Division Authority) said.

“This will create a gap at the top thereby offering us an opportunity for exports,” he said adding however, the Government must first take measures to do away with restrictions on domestic trade.

“It is easier for a farmer in a South Indian state to import wheat from Australia than from Punjab. Not less than three licenses are needed for the purpose - a license for storage, one for trading and another for moving the crop out of the state - making the whole process too cumbersome,” Mr Patnaik said.

He said “Government’s fears of a famine visiting the country, which has prevented it from exporting wheat even as our coffers are full, are misplaced,” adding “the ministry of commerce and the Government of India should remove restrictions on the export of wheat since we have already left our gates wide open for imports.”

Mr Patnaik said “India can and must export two to five million tonnes of wheat consistently every year. The country has the geographical advantage as “all the major wheat importers are close to us - China, North Africa, Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia and Phillipines.”

The country should also go in for better storage facilities and align its systems according to the needs of the importing countries, he said adding “five to ten million tonnes of wheat export should be a near-term goal.”

Professor Jha, former head of the National Council for Agricultural Planning (NCAP), however, refuses to agree India could occupy the top slot in wheat export arguing that even in India the agriculture sector enjoyed subsidies in water and fertilisers and once removed would result in a substantial rise in the cost of production of wheat.

“Nevertheless, we should try to export the crop as it would keep us on our toes to improve efficiency of wheat production,” Mr Jha
added.

(PTI).