There is need for robust regulatory system which will scientifically establish mechanism for evaluation of GM crops so that all the issues on this matter can be put to rest, union minister of state for agriculture and food processing Tariq Anwar said.

While speaking at 'Future of Food - Role of Technology in Food Security' conference jointly organised by Governance Now and Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) on Thursday, Anwar said that good governance is as important as technology. The governance deficit could prevent from taking benefits of technology. This in turn makes farmers and consumers suffer, he said. He termed the extraordinary rise in onion prices as a governance issue. “If the farmers get paid Rs 10 while the consumers pay anywhere between Rs 80 to Rs 100 per kilogram of onion. There is obviously something seriously wrong in the way the onion market prices operate.”

Pointing at the reasons, he said, “We know that there are governance issues related to licencing of wholesalers, issues related to market price information and a number of such issues related to the whole supply which creates this kind o pricing contradiction which I just referred to.”

Anwar said contract farming and value addition to Indian food through food processing would play a major role in improving agricultural productivity as well as providing return for agricultural produce. The APMC Act needs to be amended in a number of states to allow for this, he said.

He said that the food grain production between 1993-94 and 2011-12 has increased by 40 percent, the production of eggs, lead by corporate, in the corresponding period has been 166 percent.

He said that use of better technologies can help achieve primary role of food security even if the availability of land and water kept constant.