At the World Trade Organisation’s 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi, Thailand replaced its ambassador, Pimchanok Vonkorpon Pitfield, after the Indian government lodged a protest against her remarks on its public stockholding programme. Pitfield had said that India’s rice procurement programme for PDS is not for the people, but for capturing the export market. Thailand is the second biggest rice exporter after India. It is also part of the Cairn Group — a group of 20 nations that includes rice exporters such as Thailand and Vietnam as well as countries like Australia, Brazil and Canada. The group, which pushes for liberalisation of global trade in agriculture, has raised questions in the past as well over India’s programme on grounds that it is “distorting” global food prices and “hurting” the food security of other countries. They are missing the point.
The Indian government procures foodgrains for meeting objectives such as its commitments under the National Food Security Act, and other schemes. It is directed towards ensuring food security for a large part of the country’s population, not for distorting global food trade. The requirement of rice and wheat under these welfare schemes is not more than 60 million tonnes. Even after making adjustments for an additional quantity for open market interventions, the total requirement is not significantly more. Procurement did rise during 2021-22 and 2022-23 in excess of the requirements for the public stockholding programme. But stocks declined as beneficiaries were given 5 kg of free grain per person per month in addition to their existing quota under the National Food Security Act during the Covid period and because of two poor wheat crops.
