Monumental measure

Health of the country’s people at large is figuring in public domain nowadays to an unprecedented extent. However, the health of the country’s economy, being gauged by its Gross Domestic Product, a universally used indicator has virtually taken away the spotlight on the former, given the officially published almost weekly estimates of that economic indicator for the current fiscal and its anticipated figure for the next financial year. In the meanwhile, the top brass in the incumbent Union government is mulling alignment of the conventional April-March style of financial year with the January-December style of the Gregorian calendar, citing some advantages, including a more rewarding agriculture policy as well as chalking out increasingly efficient related programmes of the government in years ahead. The justification for the historic measure has to wait for a few years for judging its merits. Mopping up revenue to rev up the government’s kitty and rein in the nagging fiscal deficit will have to be pursued to achieve a sustained rise in GDP of the nation.

Global rating agencies have begun to shower adulation for India’s global rank at near top as a healthy economy, including a single digit rate of inflation year on year, although Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and foodflation (inflation exclusively applied to food of masses) have not been held in check to a perceptible extent. In this context, one cannot over-exaggerate the synergy between administration and people at large to sustain health of the country’s economy.

While gross figures of the output of agriculture in a given year are disclosed through media by the agencies of the government concerned, the litmus test of a) whether those figures mirror reality and b) if the estimated output can be accepted as adequate is that the nation’s hunger index remains at zero level. The country is far from scoring pass marks in that test. Talking in a lay language, while grains constitute the people’s staple, other foods, drawn from both plant and animal sources, are to be zealously raised to meet the nutritional norms in the diet of people at large. In this backdrop, the training centre being reportedly constructed in Madikeri, Kodagu District, Karnataka to train farmers in growing horticultural crops brings to one’s mind the statement  “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  by Neil Armstrong  on landing on moon’s surface in 1969.

India is host to fruits and vegetables in an impressive variety raised in different regions of the country, currently earning third rank among the countries of the world in production of these crops. The Madikeri-based centre’s creation shall be a monumental measure on many counts once it is replicated in every State across the country.