If that happens, India will lose control of its seed production, its agriculture and its food security. Given that India s food security is monsoon dependent and uncertain and given that India has just about emerged from the humiliation of food imports, it is amazing that there are still those who are promoting the thesis that self reliance in agriculture is an outdated concept. The shocking theory is doing the rounds with renewed vigor that India should sell roses and orchids and buy wheat from countries like the US and Canada who produce it more cheaply than we do. To those embracing this theory, it needs to be pointed out that the European Union, one of the most powerful economies in the world, is committed to self reliance in food. Its Bible like document called the Common Agricultural Policy, places this unashamedly as the central dogma.
Most countries have a similar policy.
It is pathetic that a country as vulnerable as us on food is so ready to chant the globalisation mantra, as to jeopardise the very basis of its security. First food and then the rest.