After two decades of the revolution in rice and wheat crops, the Nobel Laureate, Dr Norman E. Borlaug, had desired that the next few decades would be known as the maize era i.e. coarse grain revolution. Unfortunately, it couldn't. Recollect how maize harvest avoided a serious famine situation in Bihar in 1987. To put in a straight way that coarse grains provide essential food for the million of people and they deserve full support from the government. In such efforts alone lie the essence of food security and nutrition security for the millions.

Really there is a sorry state of affairs that all efforts on the food production front have been targeted at food availability to the higher income groups in our country. There has been emphasis on wheat and rice to the detriment of coarse grains, which are not only more nutritious but are consumed by the deprived section of society. We are generous in providing massive food subsidies for rice and wheat but too conservative to release similar subsidies for coarse grains. Every government claims that it really cares for the poor but truth is that the poor remains in his squalid status.

We live in a country where bottom 60 per cent of the people do not have the capacity to save or borrow and where 30 per cent live in a bondage of debt. The dominant emphasis, therefore, suggests misplaced priorities.

Inflation in coarse grain prices will hit poor man and that is why the government should intervene. Coarse grains are used as feed item for poultry thus increasing price for meat items and this would have a spiraling effect on inflation as meat and poultry prices would increase. In the backdrop of this development, coarse grain is being exported to Middle East countries, where it is used as feed items for poultry and animals but poor people in India are suffering.

The government recently said it has no plans to ban maize exports. However, this move has irked the poultry sector which has been demanding a ban on export of maize due to increasing prices of the commodity. Poultry and starch industries have been demanding a ban on maize exports, as prices of the coarse grain have surged in most spot markets on high export demand, despite a larger crop.

On an average, India exports about 500,000-800,000 tonnes of maize to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The government can intervene in a number of possible ways. First, the government can take specific steps to monitor coarse grain prices. Second, it can ban export of coarse grain (bar/pie chart). Further, the government can take steps to stop hoarding of coarse grain and disallow coarse grain in the manufacture of bio fuels.