Punjab minister for reformulating national food policy

Chandigarh, May 26 (UNI) Punjab Cooperation Minister Kanwaljit Singh today underlined the need to reformulate the food policy to make the country self-sufficient in foodgrains.

Under the new policy, stress should be on providing remunerative prices to farmers, required concessions to millers and processors and a proper agri marketing systems, he said while presiding over a technical seminar on 'Rice Processing Technology' at the RICETECH-2007 here.

He said the coutry was deficit in food production due to lack of anticipation of the food requirements.

While emphasising the need for correctional steps in policy making, Capt Singh advocated that a broad, flexible and dynamic food policy should be chalked out after due deliberations with the representatives of farmers and food processing industries.

It becomes imperative to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for increasing the production which could further play a vital role in creating more opportunities for processing units through sufficient availability of crop, he added.

He advised the rice millers to opt for multi stage processing procedures and stressed the need for intensive research to inmporve seed varities and farm technologies.

While reiterating the Punjab Government's firm commitment to meet the food shortage in India, the Minister hoped that the farmers would strive hard to bridge the gap between production and consumption of wheat and rice in the country.

Earlier Mr Tarsem Saini, President of the Federation of All India Rice Millers Association and Mr Vijay Setia, President of the All India Rice Exporters Association expressed their views and highlighted the problems being faced by the rice millers.

UNI