Kerala - Kozhikode   

Ensure food security: Minister

KOZHIKODE: Industries Minister Elamaram Karim has said that to achieve food security, the Kudumbasree units should take up more collective projects.

He was distributing prizes to those Kudumbasree units which had been doing collective farming in Kozhikode district here on Saturday.

Mr. Karim said of the 40 lakh tonnes of food grain required by the State, only eight lakh was locally produced. “Since the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power, we have been successful in adding other two lakh tonnes to the food grain output,” Mr. Karim said. Blaming the Central government for undoing the public distribution system, Mr. Karim said the classification of households into BPL and APL had driven food prices up in Kerala as only 25 lakh household of the total 70 lakh ration card holders fell in the BPL category.

Mr. Karim said the State government was forced to develop a food security policy as the Central government which was mandated to supply food-deficit States with the required demand had shirked from its duty.

Welcoming the entry of more Kudumbasree units into the agriculture sector, he said the impact of women’s entry into the agriculture labour force would have implications beyond food security. “A woman with income contributes to the security and prosperity of family and society,” Mr. Karim said. The Industry Minister said schemes like Janasree were begun with the intention of destroying the Kudumbasree and time would expose the Janasree as “a fake and a farce.”

Mayor M. Bhaskaran presided over the programme and distributed grants to ‘ayalkootams’ and certificates to women in Kudumbasree units who had undertaken agricultural training.

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