SPEECH ON THE OCCATION OF STATE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD MINISTER’S CONFERENCE ON 8TH AND 9TH FEBRUARY, 2012.

I welcome you all to this momentous occasion where we take a step forward to jointly provide for those who need it the most, a guaranteed access to food grains. Trying to provide food security to all may well be one of the most ambitious social security programs launched. India was in a precarious situation in the area of food security in the first two decades after independence. From being import dependent and a recipient of food aid, we are, now self-sufficient in this critical area. From over 90% of the population depending on “Rations”, in the fifties and sixties, today many among the upper and middle classes no longer depend on the public distribution system. These are not small achievements at all, for a country of our size.

But we cannot sit back and rest on these laurels. There is more to be done for those who are still vulnerable economically and socially. There are still large parts of the country that depends on the public machinery to provide them with affordable food. We cannot ignore their needs if we have to build our nation into a global power. The National Food Security Bill outlines the process of bringing in these citizens to a safety net where the most deserving could take comfort in the guaranteed availability of food and nutrition.

Our agenda today is very simple and at the same time a complex one. We need to identify the means by which we will make food grains available to the needy sections of the population. The presence in our midst of two of the most esteemed members of the Union Cabinet, Hon’ble Finance Minister and Hon’ble Agriculture Minister, is an indication of importance as well as the firm resolution on the part of the Government to achieve this goal with a collaborative effort between the Centre and the states. And I thank them for their benign presence. The task ahead of us, which is the complex part of the Agenda, is to mutually agree by the States and the Centre on the roadmap towards this objective. It includes finding ways and means for increasing production, procurement, finding the effective ways of safeguarding and transporting the stock, identifying the right beneficiaries and adopting technology to provide the backbone for an efficient public distribution system.

Over the years, thanks to the Green Revolution, investments in infrastructure, power and water and the hard work and dedication of our farmers, we have reached today a strong position in terms of food grains availability. In the current 2011-12 crop season we hope to see cereal production touch 250 million tonne mark, up from 245 million tonnes last year. With advancement in seed quality, farm technology and their adoption in the field, we could see this rise in production to continue. On the flip side, this increase is being offset by the increase in population and our inability to increase per capita availability. So apart from increasing production by a quantum jump, we need to adopt better methods of storage, transportation and distribution to minimize wastage of precious agriculture produce.

There is also the issue of regional disparities in production and availability. While geographic features of a region have a large bearing on this, we have been able to overcome those successfully in certain places and should be able to do so in other areas also. For example, in the State of Haryana, the production of rice which stood at 1 lakh tonnes in 1960-61 has increased close to 35 lakh tonnes in the current season – no mean achievement by any standards! The incentive for farmers to grow more foodgrains exists in the form of the MSP and access to procurement centers and availability of procurement agencies. Decentralized procurement scheme was initiated to tackle this very problem and the results are definitely positive several states. As the nodal ministry, we stand by you in your efforts to increase procurement. States like UP, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam have a large potential to improve procurement so that farmers and the general populace can be helped immensely. The recent success in setting up more procurement centers by the State Governments in MP and Chhattisgarh shows that this can be done. I also complement the State Government of Bihar which had taken a series of measures in this regard during the current Kharif season.

We have taken a decision recently to introduce payment to farmers, whether for levy or direct procurement compulsorily by cheque or account transfer to ensure that full MSP reaches the farmers. All the State Government is requested to implement this important measure in the interest of farmers.

The next important issue in the supply chain is ensuring that all those who depend on public distribution for meeting their food grain requirement are indeed covered and do get their entitlement through an efficient, effective and dynamic PD system. It is indeed a thin line between ensuring access and preventing misuse of the benefits provided. There are a multitude of opinions on how to tackle this problem. In the recent years we have seen a number of successful efforts like use of digitized data, issuing of smart cards and computerization of fair price shops. Elimination of bogus beneficiaries from the system by large numbers allows the real beneficiaries to get their due share. Other experiments like giving bar-coded vouchers, community involvement in monitoring and auditing have also been tried. States like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have set examples and role models in this area.

My Ministry has been progressing steadily in its computerization program to allow transparent monitoring and reporting on the stocks, movement and delivery schedules. Presentations later in the day will take you through more details. But to make these efforts successful the implementation has to be seamless through the entire country from the sourcing state to the central agencies to the destination locations. We all need to co-operate and meet deadlines on implementation so that leakages in the system are minimized. We should also look at the mechanisms of civil society monitoring of the movements of foodgrains that have been successful in some pockets and see how this can be rolled out nationally to bring complete transparency to the system.

Having touched upon production on the one hand and PDS as the underpinning of a strong supply-chain let me now go to the intermediary issue; that is storage. Though storage facilities and warehousing have been increasing and improving, there is still a lot to be done on this front. For example, ideas like vertical silos need the complete chain to be effective. Handling of foodgrains in bulk may well need a change of mindset. We need to see how to have both systems co-exist and how to make a smooth transition. Central Warehousing Corporation has taken up a very ambitious programme of modernizing their godowns and I have asked Food Corporation of India to do the same.

But the priority here is setting up more temporary and permanent storage. There are a number of schemes available to help the States increase capacity at various levels. I know that some States have been leveraging the funds available from Finance Commission etc. to add storage capacity at the FPS level. We also have schemes like Grameen Bhandaran Yojana and RIDF of NABARD which can be similarly used to create storage at intermediate levels. The pitfalls of not having enough CAP capacity also cannot be underestimated either. States like Punjab and Haryana have perfected their systems over the years and those getting into the procurement mode should be able to learn from these States and follow. I would request all the States to prepare a five year prospective plan to create intermediate storage capacity at the district, block, Gram panchayat and fair price shop level by leveraging existing schemes both at the Central and State level.

The need for an efficient system is as important as showing the civil society that we are doing it. In a forum like this we can discuss the steps being taken, that need to be taken and also how to project the changes being planned and being done by us.

Last but not the least, we need to discuss the operational issues of the interfacing between the central agencies, State agencies and the last mile, i.e. consumers at the FPS level. There are issues in allocation, delivery, etc. that need to be mutually resolved. After all, we all have the same objective of supporting our people and in any case Public Distribution System is the joint responsibility of Centre and the States.

I thank each one of you, especially the State representatives for having responded to our request to be present here and I again welcome you all to this Conference and look forward to a fruitful debate to come up with an action plan to help this Bill become a success.

JAI HIND!