Govt ready with plan to keep a lid on food prices over next year

The Centre is prepared with a plan to ensure food security over the coming year, in the wake of an erratic monsoon that disrupted the crop calendar and boosted food prices this year. According to Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, this will include sourcing pulses from a variety of countries, intervening quickly and directly in retail markets, and possible export-import related steps, depending on the situation.

- Puja Das & Gireesh Chandra Prasad

As part of the plan, the government is working to create a model to predict food prices that will factor in externalities like weather and trade-related measures, Singh said in an interview.

The ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution is developing this with the help of academics from Delhi University. Currently, the ministry uses an artificial intelligence (AI)-based software to help with these predictions.

Mint on 29 October reported that the government was planning to create a real-time supply and demand model for agricultural commodities that will help it plan and evaluate policy for a volatile market.

This comes after a patchy monsoon disrupted the kharif crop calendar, impacting the sowing and vegetative seasons while economists forecast farm output growth in 2023-24 to be slower this year.

The government is also in talks with Argentina and Brazil for urad production, and East African countries, especially Ethiopia and Tanzania for tur production, Singh said.

Singh explained weather patterns have shifted the whole crop calendar. Besides, as income levels grow, food habits are changing.