In a clear shift of stand, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the government would decide on lifting the three-year ban on grain exports after assessing requirements under the proposed Food Security Act.
Only last month, the minister had said the government should give serious thought on allowing export of wheat and non-basmati rice, banned in February 2007 and April 2008. He is believed to have also written to the Prime Minister, explaining the rationale behind allowing export of grain.
The Prime Minister had said yesterday, on the occasion of the completion of two years of the ruling coalition’s second year in office, that the government was planning to bring the proposed Food Security Act in the coming monsoon session of Parliament. The agriculture minister’s comment today is in line with the stance all along of the food ministry, which had maintained that ensuring food security under the proposed law was priority and not exports.
The proposed bill, promised by the ruling Congress party in its 2009 poll manifesto, is still being worked on. It seeks to provide a legal guarantee to the poor on a specified quantity of foodgrains each month at a reasonable price.
Cotton
In reply to another question, Pawar said the government should take an early decision on raising the export cap on cotton from the existing 5.5 million bales (a bale is 170 kg), to protect farmers and the handloom sectors. Having pressed earlier for allowing more exports of cotton, he said the government should not delay a decision, as it did on sugar exports.
The government had allowed the export of 5.5 million bales in the 2010-11 marketing season (October-September) and the entire quantity has already been shipped.
New Land Bill
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today said the government planned to introduce amendments in the next session of Parliament to the Land Acquisition Act to protect the interest of growers.