Govt committed to enacting Food Security Act: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the Food Security Law -- promised by the Congress in its election manifesto -- is under formulation and a draft would be released for public debate.

Singh, however, did not give any timeframe for enactment of the law to provide cheap food to the poor.

"The Food Security Bill is under preparation and it is proposed to place it (draft) in the public domain for scrutiny and wider consultation," the Prime Minister said.

Under the proposed Bill, the government intends to provide 25 kg of rice or wheat at Rs 3 a kg to people below poverty line (BPL). A Group of Ministers is working out the details to make it another flagship programme of the UPA after the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Consultations have been held on the proposed Bill with states and union territories and other stakeholders.

Singh also said that the UPA government is committed to giving priority to the agriculture sector. "Agriculture and the well being of India's farmers will receive priority attention."

Highlighting the achievements, the report card of the first year of the UPA government said, "The nation faced a severe drought in 2009. The government approved assistance amounting to Rs 4,806 crore from the National Calamity Contingency Fund to help mitigate the effects of the drought."

Almost half of the country was affected by last year's drought-- the worst since 1972 -- resulting into a massive production loss of foodgrains, which dipped to 218.19 million tonnes in 2009-10 from 234.47 million tonnes a year-ago.

"Various measures were taken to deal with the (drought) situation...The impact of drought on crop production was mitigated," the report said.

Introduction of nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) policy for all fertilisers other than urea and cheap farm credit were other major highlights of last year. NBS aims to balance use of fertiliser and ensuring soil health.

During April 2009 to January 2010 period, farm credit worth Rs 2.66 lakh crore was disbursed. The target for the entire last fiscal was Rs 3.25 lakh crore.

The government said it provided additional one per cent subvention to those farmers who repay their loan on time in the last fiscal. The effective rate was 6 per cent for them.

The report said that Rs 3,761.43 crore were released during 2009-10 under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

"Due to interventions under the National Horticulture Mission, production of fruits, vegetables and spices has increased by 25.6 per cent, 22 per cent and 11.9 per cent respectively during 2009-10 over 2005-06," it said.