By Sreekumar Raghavan
In economic theory, inferior goods are commodities that are bought in lesser quantities when consumer incomes go up. The older text books often talk about potato and bread as belonging to this category.
I remember in Kerala, tapioca was once considered an inferior good but now has emerged as an important part of 5-star menu altering the fortunes of the crop for its cultivators. Chana was often talked about as a cheap source of protein and as an ideal food to conquer malnutrition in developing world.
I don’t think potato and bread are any longer considered as inferior goods and the fact that French Fries and fried potatoes began to be marketed by the likes of Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald, PepsiCo and several leading brands.
Chana may be on its evolution path from malnutrition fighter to five-star delicacy thanks to a billion-dollar investment by PepsiCo for augmenting production of this popular pulses variety in Ethiopia. The programme involving a three-way partnership between PepsiCo’s Foundation, the United Nations Food Programme and United States Agency for International Development is meant to address malnutrition in Ethiopia and also help farmers ensure more yield for the crop.
PepsiCo’s move is not entirely altruistic as part of the Ethiopian chickpea additionally produced will be utilized for the hummus snack made by Sabra, a PepsiCo-owned subsidiary.
"For PepsiCo, chickpea-based products are an important part of the company's strategy to build a $30 billion global nutrition business by 2020."
N Nadarajan, Director of Indian Institute of Pulses Research in Kanpur admits in their newsletter that despite some of the research achievements in the past five years, pulses production in India still lags behind demand. To achieve the target of 21 mn tonnes of pulses production by 2016-17, transgenic chickpea, pigeonpea hybrids have been mooted and that requires a paradigm shift in technology, research, dissemination and commercialization.
India's focus during Green Revolution was on rice and wheat but with production failing to meet growing demand the policy support is now in favour of pulses. However, farmers need to be ensured of higher yields through hybrid varieties for them to include Chana in their portfolio.
The entry of a multinational upbeat on Chickpeas prospects for the future may be good news for the grower community and a public private partnership model if successful through the PepsiCo venture may be worth emulating in India, the largest producer of the pulses variety.
The basic economic theory then holds good-- if a crop or food is considered an inferior then research, extension activities and policy support may be lacking until it gets elevated to a higher marketable commodity.
(The author is Managing Editor of Commodity Online and may be contacted at sk@commodityonline.com)
