A meeting of Food Ministers and Food Secretaries of States/Union Territories (UTs) was held on 13.02.2013 in New Delhi to discuss recommendations of the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution on the National Food Security Bill, 2011. States/UTs expressed their views on recommendations of the Standing Committee on various aspects of the Bill, including coverage under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) at 75% and 50% for rural and urban population respectively, identification of beneficiaries, foodgrain entitlement of 5 kg per person per month under TPDS, sharing of expenditure etc. This information was given by the Minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution Prof. K.V. Thomas in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
He said that at the current levels of production and procurement of foodgrains, any shortfall in availability of foodgrains is not foreseen, so far as meeting the estimated requirement of foodgrains under the National Food Security Bill is concerned.
However, in order to ensure adequate availability of foodgrains, the Government has set a target of production of additional 25 million tons of foodgrains in the 12th Five Year Plan. Government is taking steps to increase productivity in non-traditional areas and to stabilize production in traditional areas, by seeking to improve agriculture infrastructure, promote sustainable agriculture through better national resource management and favourable terms of trade for food crops through remunerative Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) and marketing support to farmers.
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