Food price inflation has become a major problem in India recently despite rising food grains

production. The government has been unable to control food inflation even though it has large
accumulated stocks of food grains. Fearing that food inflation would lead to generalized
inflation, India's central bank has sharply raised interest rates. This has slowed economic growth
but hardly lowered inflation even after 2-3 years of this policy. Continuing high inflation has hurt
the poor most, whose incomes are usually the last to go up with rising prices; and slower growth
means that fewer people are moving out of poverty. A better understanding of the causes and
cures of food inflation in India is urgently needed. This paper makes an attempt in this direction
by analyzing the demand and supply of food in India. First, we estimate the demand for food
separately for various food categories such as cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk and milk
products, meat, etc. We also project the demand for these food categories up to 2025 so as to
provide a b