The Centre has approved Rs 231 crore to all states for implementing the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) for pulses and rice during the current kharif sowing season. This amount includes a fresh allocation of Rs 123.02 crore and the previous year?s unspent amount of Rs 118.95 crore.
According to an official statement, the total allocation of Rs 231 crore is the first instalment for 2008-09 and the remaining amount will be released at a later date.
The statement also showed that no fresh allocation has been made for Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamilnadu as their unspent funds from 2007?s total allocation was more than the approved amount for 2008.
In six states, the total unspent amount from 2007 was around Rs 20.41 crore, while 2008?s allocation for rice and pulses during the kharif season is Rs 9.87 crore. ?These states have been asked to use their unspent funds for this kharif season as 2007-08 was the first season of the NFSM,? a senior government official said.
The NFSM, launched in September 2007, aims at raising production of rice by 10 million tonne, wheat by 8 million tonne and pulses by 2 million tonne by 2011-2012 in order to reduce the country?s dependency on imports and meet additional demand.
Currenttly, India produces around 75 million tonne of wheat, around 95 million tonne of rice and around 14 million – 15 million tonne of pulses. But, rising population and shift in eating habits are putting an additional pressure on the existing output of food grains.
The project almost covers the entire country and is primarily focussed on those areas where the per hectare yield is less than the national average.