Cabinet approves outlay of Rs 12350 cr to boost foodgrain production

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for continuation of the ongoing centrally sponsored scheme of National Food Security Mission (NFSM) during 12th Five Year Plan with an allocation of Rs. 12,350 crore.

This would help in increasing additional foodgrains production of 25 million tonnes consisting of 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of pulses and 3 million tonnes of coarse cereals by 2016-17.

The Mission's main focus will be on cropping systems instead of individual crops and inclusion of coarse cereals through development of Farmer-Producer Organizations (FPOs), creating value chains and providing market linkages.

NFSM would be implemented in 27 States including the North-Eastern and Hill States. The Mission would be implemented in selected districts as per the criteria laid down for NFSM, giving the priority to the districts that have yields lower than the State average.

The basic strategy is to promote improved technologies, i.e., adoption of quality seeds, enhancing farm efficiency through improved agronomic practices like line sowing, SRI, direct seeding, soil amendments, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, water use efficiency and resource conservation technologies.

Proven crop production technologies developed by the National Agricultural Research System would be made available to the farmers through a series of planned interventions and financial incentives.

NFSM was launched in 2007-08 with an outlay of Rs. 4,882.48 crore for 11th Plan and succeeded in meeting its objective of increasing foodgrains production by 20 million tonnes by 2011-12. The average annual production of about 202.5 million tonnes of foodgrains during the 10th Plan rose to the level of about 237.5 million tonnes during the 11th Plan.