DELAY IN GRAIN FOR INDIA

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 21

DELAY IN GRAIN FOR INDIA

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Nov. 22. President Johnson is reported to be delaying final action on a huge new food aid programme for India until he gets new information from a United States survey mission on India’s own efforts to meet its chronic grain crisis.

Experts from the Agriculture Department went to India last week for a firsthand check on food needs,

available supplies, and measures which the Government of Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi is taking to deal with the situation. In Government quarters it is said that a pending programme covering the shipment of millions of tons of grain would not get final White House approval until the Agriculture Department

group has completed its study. The Indian Government has complained to Washington on the failure to sign an agreement. The food needs of other countries, particularly Egypt and Pakistan, are also being studied, informants said. Part of the problem facing President Johnson was the decline in the American food surplus to the point where the vast storehouses of grain once available are no longer there to meet the requirements of needy countries. Egypt, which has been buying grain outright from the Commodity Credit Corporation, asked earlier this year for a United States agreement to supply 150,000 tons in the coming months. America itself has been concerned about Pakistan’s needs since a crop failure in India is often matched by a production drop in neighbouring Pakistan. India’s requirements are by far the greatest of those confronting the United States. This is the principal reason that the Johnson Administration feels urgent measures are necessary to increase production in India. Indian sources say that this means large new supplies of fertiliser, to purchase which they require money.