Food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has changed his stance on the National Advisory Council’s proposals on the food security bill after the Prime Minister chaired a meeting on the issue last week. Sources in the government said Mr Pawar has dropped his reservations on the NAC proposals related to procurement of grains. Instead, he has started talking about increasing agricultural production to meet the requirements of the proposed food security bill.
Based on the NAC proposals on the food security bill, the food ministry had estimated that increasing annual grain procurement from the current 57 million tonnes to 67 million tonnes would not be easy. Sources said once Mr Pawar realised that the PM was supervising the framing of food security bill, he has started talking about increasing food production instead to meet the requirement of additional grains. “There is no point hammering the limitation on the procurement of grains. The minister has shifted focus on enhancing food production, which is equally important,” said a senior official in the agriculture ministry.
However, officials in the ministry said they will push the states into bringing more area under crops, use better seeds and sowing techniques and judicious use of fertilisers.