From Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Dr R C Laloo, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies on Wednesday said that the hill state with its limited agricultural area is trying its best to increase its deficit food production and storage capacity as well to feed its ever increasing population.
Addressing the conference of the state agriculture and food ministers here, Dr Laloo said that though rice is staple food in the state its production remains at 206964 metric tonnes in over one lakh heactre land per annum with average yield of 1912 kg only.
The state however has launched its own Rice Mission in the 12th plan period which is likely to increase the production with additional and alternative variety of rice, he said.
Talking on similar lines the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee who inaugurated the conference said that massive investment in the agricultural sector is needed as enhanced food production is must for the success of Food Security for all.
Addressing the conference, Mr Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, said that States need to accept the challenge of producing more to meet the ever increasing demand of food grains.
Dr Laloo said that the state which is deficit in food grain production is also procuring grains from outside and storing the same through FCI.
The total rice allocation to Meghalaya is 13538.63 tonnes per month under the Above Poverty Line (APL), Below Poverty Line (BPL),Antoyodya Anna Yojana (AAY) Annapurna and additional allocations, which he said need to be increased substantially by the Centre.
Mr Pawar said that the critical issues in production, procurement, storage, movement and distribution should be addressed immediately so that when the Food Security Act is enacted, the system is ready to implement it efficiently and effectively.
He also called for revamping of the marketing infrastructure to ensure continued agriculture growth and remunerative prices to the farmers.
Dr Laloo said that besides allocating more food grains to Meghalaya, the Centre should also assist in building storage capacity in different parts of the state as already proposed.
The state has storage capacity of about 31,000 tones and plans to increase by about 10000 tones more in four places, Shillong, Baghmara, Byrnihat and Mendipathar.
In his speech the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof. K.V. Thomas said that trying to provide food security to all is one of the most ambitious social security programmes proposed by the government.
He said that the States should identify the means to make food grains available to the needy sections of the population by preparing a joint roadmap towards this objective.
“It should include finding ways and means for increasing production, procurement, finding the effective ways of safeguarding and transporting the stock, identifying the right beneficiaries and adopting technology to provide the backbone for an efficient public distribution system,” he advised.
Emphasizing end-to-end computerization of PDS, Prof Thomas said efforts should be made for elimination of bogus beneficiaries from the system. Experiments like giving bar-coded vouchers, community involvement in monitoring and auditing should be encouraged.
Highlighting recent initiatives made by the Central Government for the modernization of PDS, the Food Minister said his Ministry has been progressing steadily in its computerization programme to allow transparent monitoring and reporting on the stocks, movement and delivery schedules.
Dr Laloo said that in this area the state has achieved some success having a detailed computerised data base in the first phase.
Most up-to-date smart cards will be issued in the second phase and both the schemes have been submitted to the Ministry, he added. The two-day conference, which began here on Wednesday, was also addressed by Chairman of UIDAI, Mr Nandan Nilekani and other senior officers.
It will be followed by interactive sections with the Food and Agriculture Ministers of the States where Dr Laloo will be participating.
