Fortifying food security

WTO norms should be made more realistic

India has made a strong and well-founded plea at the special session of the agriculture committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in Geneva last week, for finding a permanent solution to the issue of farm subsidies and public stockholding for food security. This matter has been hanging fire since the inception of the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which had prescribed an irrational outer limit for farm subsidies of 10 per cent of the value of crop production, based on the prices prevailing between 1986 and 1988. Any outgo on agricultural support in excess of this cap is