Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in the matter related to public stock holding of grains for food security of nations and Special Safeguard Mechanism to be discussed at a session in Geneva.
Badal has urged Modi to take up the issue forcefully during the special session of Committee on Agriculture there.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal said that the Central Government 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, more importantly the food security of our country.
The Chief Minister apprised Modi that WTO ministerial meeting at Nairobi in December, 2015 ended with a declaration which welcomed the progress on Doha Development Agenda, which embodied the decision of Special Safeguard Mechanism for developing country members and public stock holding for food security purposes.
He also informed that Nairobi declaration provided that the members should pursue the negotiations on Special Safeguard Mechanism for developing country members in dedicated sessions of Committee on Agriculture in a special session.
Similarly, regarding Public Stock Holding for food-security purposes, the member should engage constructively to agree and adopt a permanent solution to the issue.
Further, to achieve such a permanent solution, the negotiations should be held in the Committee on Agriculture in dedicated sessions and in an accelerated time-frame, distinct from the agriculture negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda.
Badal further mentioned that the food-grain requirements of the country would increase with the increase in population in the coming years and to ensure the food security for its people, the public stock holding to meet the requirements under the country’s Food Security Act was a must.
The Chief Minister wrote, “We don’t consider the public stock holding as a distortion in the market in our situation as it is of paramount importance for us to provide access to food at affordable prices to our growing population. Further, sufficient stocks also 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.”
The absence of Special Safeguard Mechanism would expose the domestic market to the cheap imports from the developed countries and would seriously impair the agricultural production and thereby the livelihoods and welfare of small and marginal farmers of the country,” Badal added.