For the ever increasing population of our coutry, which is expected to reach 1.5 Billion by 2040, providing food security is a daunting task for the society as whole. One estimate indiactes that we have lost about 50% of the arable land since independence due to various reasons. The govt. agencies keep talking about doubling the rate of increase in farm production. For such a vast population of over 60%, which is still dependent largely on rudimentary agricultural methods, it is a very tall order to gather enough resources and knowledge required to achieve this goal.

On the other hand we are snatching away large tracts of fertile agricultural fields for the so called 'developmental activities'. The recent examples of importing wheat and sugar, if not treated as alram bells, can only indicate the difficult days ahead. The new concept of SEZs, where large chunk of agricultural lands are under the threat of being diverted to non-agricultural actvities, is another dimension to this probelm.

In this regard a relevant news article can be read in the following link:
Wishful thinking

Don't we have an urgent need to review our developmental prioirities and policies ?