In a bid to ensure country’s food security, Punjab wants the Centre to push for finalising the work programme for public stock holding of food grains and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) in the special sessions of committee on agriculture during the upcoming negotiation meet of World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging for his personal intervention in the matter.
“India should mobilise an opinion amongst the developing countries to support these issues during the negotiations in the committee in the larger interest of small farmers of these countries and more importantly, food security of our country,” Mr. Badal said. The food-grain requirements would increase with the rise in population in the coming years and to ensure the food security for the people, the public stock holding was necessary so that requirements under the National Food Security Act could be met.
“We don’t consider the public stock holding as a distortion in the market as it is important for us to provide access to food at affordable prices to our growing population. Besides, sufficient stocks need to be maintained to ensure availability in case of a crop failure in a situation where more than half of the agriculture production is received from un-irrigated areas,” he wrote.
Mr. Badal expressed concern that absence of SSM would expose the domestic market to the cheap imports from the developed countries and would impair the agricultural production and thereby the livelihoods of small farmers of the country.
WTO ministerial meeting in Nairobi in December 2015 ended with a declaration welcoming the progress on Doha development agenda.
