Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Minister Shri Sharad Pawar yesterday (June 5, 2013) informed members of parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his ministry that the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) has resulted in increase in foodgrain production by 42 million tonnes as against the target of 20 million tonnes set for the Eleventh Plan.
The Minister said that various interventions under NFSM have resulted in distribution of almost 75 lakh of farm equipment, nearly 175 lakh quintals of high yielding variety seed of rice, wheat and pulses, and knowledge transfer through more than 49,000 Farmers Field Schools and 8 lakh field demonstrations.
During the Twelfth Plan, the Minister said, the scope of NFSM is proposed to be widened to include coarse cereals under the Mission. A target of additional 25 million tonnes of foodgrain production has been proposed during the XII Plan, i.e., 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of pulses and 3 million tonnes of coarse cereals. In addition to enhancing the productivity of foodgrains in low productivity areas, stabilizing the productivity gains in high producing areas is equally important. Accordingly, NFSM is being revamped during the XII Plan with focused attention on identified crops following location specific, target oriented production strategies for accelerated production of food grain crops and promotion of ‘cropping system’ approach in place of promoting ‘individual foodgrain crops’. Major cropping systems such as rice-wheat, rice-pulses, maize/millets-pulses, rice-rice etc. will be promoted for proper crop rotation, intercropping, etc. Provision has also been kept for post harvest management for value chain integration and for taking up strategic/adaptive research.
Giving further details about the structure and implementation of NFSM, the Minister stated: “In the XI Plan, NFSM-Rice was implemented in 144 districts of 16 States, NFSM-Wheat in 142 districts of 9 States and NFSM-Pulses in 468 districts of 16 States. From the year 2012-13, NFSM coverage has been extended to all North East States, by adding 6 NE States to the NFSM list (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim). NFSM has also been extended to 2 Hill States, viz, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand under Rice and Wheat and to J&K for Wheat. Thus, NFSM is now being implemented in 27 States of the country.
. “NFSM has helped to widen the food production basket of the country. The focussed and target oriented implementation of Mission initiatives has resulted in bumper production of wheat, rice and pulses. The production of foodgrains in 2011-12 has been a record level of 259.32 million tonnes, against a target of 245 million tonnes. In 2012-13 also, despite drought in some parts of the country, foodgrain production is on course to realise target of 254.24 million tonnes.”
The Consultative Committee consisting of members of both the Houses of Parliament was called to discuss the progress of NFSM and seeking members’ views on the scheme.
The members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha who attended the meeting were: S/Shri A. Ganeshamurthi, M. Krishnaswamy, K. Sugumar, K.P. Dhanapalan, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Gobinda Chandra Naskar, Sardar Sher Singh Ghubaya, Darshan Singh Yadav, Smt. Renubala Pradhan, K.D. Ramalingam and special invitee Smt. Santosh Chowdhary.
Courtesy: pib.nic.in (Press Information Bureau)
The Minister said that various interventions under NFSM have resulted in distribution of almost 75 lakh of farm equipment, nearly 175 lakh quintals of high yielding variety seed of rice, wheat and pulses, and knowledge transfer through more than 49,000 Farmers Field Schools and 8 lakh field demonstrations.
During the Twelfth Plan, the Minister said, the scope of NFSM is proposed to be widened to include coarse cereals under the Mission. A target of additional 25 million tonnes of foodgrain production has been proposed during the XII Plan, i.e., 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of pulses and 3 million tonnes of coarse cereals. In addition to enhancing the productivity of foodgrains in low productivity areas, stabilizing the productivity gains in high producing areas is equally important. Accordingly, NFSM is being revamped during the XII Plan with focused attention on identified crops following location specific, target oriented production strategies for accelerated production of food grain crops and promotion of ‘cropping system’ approach in place of promoting ‘individual foodgrain crops’. Major cropping systems such as rice-wheat, rice-pulses, maize/millets-pulses, rice-rice etc. will be promoted for proper crop rotation, intercropping, etc. Provision has also been kept for post harvest management for value chain integration and for taking up strategic/adaptive research.
Giving further details about the structure and implementation of NFSM, the Minister stated: “In the XI Plan, NFSM-Rice was implemented in 144 districts of 16 States, NFSM-Wheat in 142 districts of 9 States and NFSM-Pulses in 468 districts of 16 States. From the year 2012-13, NFSM coverage has been extended to all North East States, by adding 6 NE States to the NFSM list (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim). NFSM has also been extended to 2 Hill States, viz, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand under Rice and Wheat and to J&K for Wheat. Thus, NFSM is now being implemented in 27 States of the country.
. “NFSM has helped to widen the food production basket of the country. The focussed and target oriented implementation of Mission initiatives has resulted in bumper production of wheat, rice and pulses. The production of foodgrains in 2011-12 has been a record level of 259.32 million tonnes, against a target of 245 million tonnes. In 2012-13 also, despite drought in some parts of the country, foodgrain production is on course to realise target of 254.24 million tonnes.”
The Consultative Committee consisting of members of both the Houses of Parliament was called to discuss the progress of NFSM and seeking members’ views on the scheme.
The members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha who attended the meeting were: S/Shri A. Ganeshamurthi, M. Krishnaswamy, K. Sugumar, K.P. Dhanapalan, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Gobinda Chandra Naskar, Sardar Sher Singh Ghubaya, Darshan Singh Yadav, Smt. Renubala Pradhan, K.D. Ramalingam and special invitee Smt. Santosh Chowdhary.
Courtesy: pib.nic.in (Press Information Bureau)
No comments:
Post a Comment