NEW DELHI, 24 July — India is seeking support among developing countries for its stand on globalization and agricultural negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), newly-inducted Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh said yesterday.
A major issue is the subsidies that developed countries like the US and Japan and the member states of the EU give their farmers — even as they demand that developing countries abolish the subsidies.
“We have already made India’s submission on agricultural issues for negotiations and are in dialogue with like-minded developing nations to come together on a common platform,” Ajit told mediapersons soon after assuming office.
The total subsidy given by the US in 1998 was “more than the total value of India’s agriculture sector,” he said. “How can you cope with the subsidy the developed countries give in addition to their export subsidy? There is also the issue of non-trade barriers raised against Indian exports.”
Transportation and marketing of foodgrain and horticulture produce, the lack of infrastructure for storage and the difficulties in persuading farmers to diversify were among the factors identified by Ajit as hindering the growth of the farm sector.
The growth of cooperatives, as demonstrated by states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra could, according to him, be the way forward. “The current pattern of growing crops and marketing them is not going to work,” he said, warning that in the face of growing globalization, the farmers need to be made aware of new techniques for optimizing their produce.
Ajit who is son of former Prime Minister Chaudhry Charan Singh was inducted in the Cabinet on Sunday. His inclusion into the Cabinet and hence in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), at a time when Uttar Pradesh is gearing up for the assembly polls any time before March will help the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
After taking oath the RLD leader told reporters that his party will have an understanding with the BJP for the coming polls.
Both the RLD and the BJP view the alliance, which is now expected to be formalized soon, as mutually beneficial in western UP, where Ajit has a base among the ‘Jats’ (his castemen). The RLD leader said “we will now sweep the forth coming UP polls.”
He said there are about 120 assembly seats in western UP and a large number of them are dominated by his castemen.
