The Hindu Business Line : Kerala seeks inclusion in Food Security Mission

Replying to a calling attention motion in the State Assembly on Wednesday, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Mullakkara Ratnakaran, said that the project, which was given shape at the 53rd meeting of the National Development Council, was being implemented in 136 districts in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The mission aims at production of an additional 10 million tonnes of paddy, apart from wheat and pulses, and envisages an outlay of Rs 4,882.48 crore during the Eleventh Plan period. But Kerala, where rice is the staple food, has been excluded from the project.

The Minister said the Centre had not made clear the reasons or parameters for excluding Kerala, which had declared paddy fields as protected lands. Besides, the State was now was extending interest-free loans to paddy farmers and also procuring the commodity at higher prices with the objective of raising production by 50 per cent.

The inclusion of the State in the national mission would have given a fillip to the Government’s efforts to rejuvenate the paddy farming sector, he noted.

The Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board had asked the Planning Commission not to exclude Kerala from the mission at the time of the framing of the project, but to no avail.