Let me begin with reviewing some latest development on food inflation. Experience of last one year, should help us to explore what’s in store over the next five years. All of us are well aware of how unabated food inflation is causing turbulence in the global market. From Australia to Zimbabwe, from Argentina to India, from Brazil to China – indeed, across continents and the whole world – inflation is on top of concerns for the market men and the policymakers alike.

Countries that have been traditional exporters of food are clamping down on export business. Food importing countries are pulling out all the stops to encourage inflows. Import-dependent poor countries are the worst hit by the growing crisis on the global food front and heavy drain on their exchange reserve due to crude oil prices hovering at $ 130-135 a barrel with no sign of relief. It is not as if the world has suddenly started to produce less food for all. It is simply that there now are new industrial uses for traditional food crops.