Food minister Shanta Kumar has asked the agriculture ministry to expedite the formulation of package of incentives for prompting the farmers in the north-western grain bowl to shift from wheat and rice to other crops.
Diversification of cropping pattern in the region is being viewed as one of the options for dealing with the problem of plenty on the foodgrains front, Shanta Kumar told Business Standard.
He said a group of ministers had already been asked to study this issue and make suitable recommendations. The food ministry wanted this process to be stepped up to facilitate early action.
The minister said that while the country was producing excess foodgrains, it remained woefully short of edible oils and pulses.
