Millet body for local procurement clause in Food Security Bill

The Millet Network of India (MINI), an all-India alliance of 145 institutions and individuals consisting of farmers, scientists, nutritionists and environmentalists, on Wednesday urged the Union government to immediately restore the local procurement provision in the Food Security Bill, slated to be placed in the current session of Parliament.

“Only such provision that enables ‘opening of procurement centres within a radius of 10 kilometre wherever feasible and provide on-the-spot payment to farmers can ensure that the introduction of millets in the public distribution system (PDS) will stay pro-poor and benefit all farmers in the rainfed regions of India,” MINI national coordinator, PV Satheesh, said.

MINI also warned that the absence of the clause may take away the advantage from dryland farmers and hand over the reins to big corporate houses and multinationals. “Thus, what the right hand had given to the dryland farmers will be taken away by the left hand of the government,” he said.