National Food Security Mission (NFSM) was launched in
- (a)2007-08
- (b)2006-07
- (c)2008-09
- (d)2009-10
Correct — A, 2007-08.
The National Development Council, at its 53rd meeting on 29 May 2007, resolved to launch a Food Security Mission for rice, wheat and pulses. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme that followed, the National Food Security Mission, was launched in October 2007.
October 2007 falls in the financial year 2007-08, so option (a) is correct.
The idea to carry away: NFSM began in the first year of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), with targets set for the end of that Plan in 2011-12. Fix the launch to the Plan, and the year follows.
The same NDC meeting also produced the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched in August 2007. The two flagship farm schemes therefore carry the same launch year, 2007-08.
- (b)2006-07 — In 2006-07 the mission did not yet exist: the NDC resolution that created it came on 29 May 2007, already inside the next financial year. The hazard here is mapping a calendar year onto the wrong fiscal label; October 2007 sits in 2007-08, not in 2006-07.
2006-07 is instead the final year of the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07), the period whose weak foodgrain growth the mission was designed to answer.
- (c)2008-09 — By 2008-09 NFSM was already in its second year, with its Eleventh Plan targets running. The date that fixes this answer is the October 2007 start, not the decade the scheme sits in.
2008-09 is the year of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008, announced in the Union Budget of February 2008 and implemented from that financial year.
- (d)2009-10 — 2009-10 was NFSM's third year, not its first. An HPSC 2022 item states that NFSM was launched in October 2009; the guidelines record October 2007.
2009-10 is better remembered as the year of the 2009 monsoon failure, a severe drought season that hit kharif output while the mission was already running.
The National Food Security Mission is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare that raises production of targeted food crops in identified districts through area expansion and productivity enhancement, while restoring soil fertility and improving farm-level profit.
It was launched in October 2007 after the 53rd meeting of the National Development Council resolved, on 29 May 2007, to lift annual output of rice by 10 million tonnes, wheat by 8 million tonnes and pulses by 2 million tonnes by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2011-12).
NFSM belongs to the Eleventh Plan's push to revive foodgrain growth after the stagnation of the early 2000s. It shares its NDC birth with RKVY, and its district-targeted, mission-mode design set the template for later crop missions.
The mission outgrew its original trio. Coarse cereals and commercial crops (cotton, jute, sugarcane) came in from 2014-15, a Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals and the oilseeds programme in 2018-19, and in 2024-25 it was renamed the National Food Security and Nutrition Mission (NFSNM) under the Krishonnati Yojana umbrella.
For Uttarakhand the scheme is funded 90:10 between the Centre and the State, the pattern applied to the north-eastern and Himalayan states since the 2015-16 restructuring; general states are funded 60:40.
- NFSM was launched in October 2007, financial year 2007-08, as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
- The resolution behind it was adopted by the National Development Council at its 53rd meeting on 29 May 2007.
- Eleventh Plan targets: additional annual output of rice 10 million tonnes, wheat 8 million tonnes and pulses 2 million tonnes by 2011-12.
- Twelfth Plan target: 25 million tonnes more foodgrain, made up of rice 10, wheat 8, pulses 4 and coarse cereals 3 million tonnes.
- Coarse cereals (maize, barley, millets) and commercial crops (cotton, sugarcane, jute) were included under NFSM from 2014-15.
- From 2018-19 a Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi, small millets) was carved out, and the oilseeds and oil palm programme was brought under NFSM.
- Funding since 2015-16: 60:40 Centre-State for general states, 90:10 for the north-eastern and Himalayan states including Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, 100 per cent central for UTs.
- The mission was renamed the National Food Security and Nutrition Mission (NFSNM) in 2024-25 and continues under the Krishonnati Yojana.
- The implementing ministry is Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, not Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, which administers the National Food Security Act, 2013.
The launch date is fixed by the May 2007 NDC resolution and the October 2007 start; the crop list grew afterwards, the start year did not move.
- The words 'food security' attach to two different things: the Mission (2007, Agriculture Ministry, production) and the Act (2013, Food and Public Distribution Ministry, entitlement). Swapping them shifts the year by six.
- A calendar-year memory of 'October 2007' can be filed under 2006-07 if the fiscal label is read from its second half; October 2007 lies in 2007-08.
- The Twelfth Plan pulses target of 4 million tonnes is easy to read back into the original NDC resolution, which set 2 million tonnes.
- 'Rice, wheat and pulses only' is true of the 2007 launch and the Eleventh Plan objective, not of the present NFSNM, which also covers coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, commercial crops and oilseeds.
Across the cited items the mission is tested through a few checkable handles: the launch year or month, the ministry that runs it, the original three crops against later additions, and the tonnage targets attached to the Eleventh Plan.
Multi-statement forms pair a wrong launch year with a target figure lifted from a later Plan, or attribute the mission to the wrong ministry, so each handle has to be known on its own rather than inferred from the others.
HPSC_2022_PRE_GSII_Q672022Tests the same launch date, but as a two-statement item that plants October 2009 as the launch month; the guidelines record October 2007. Its Statement II uses the Twelfth Plan pulses figure of 4 million tonnes against an Eleventh Plan deadline, whereas the 2007 resolution set 2 million tonnes. Here the year is asked directly.
UKPSC_2021_PRE_GSI_Q612021Same commission, same paper slot, three years earlier — same scheme, different handle: it asks which commodities the mission was launched to boost (wheat, rice and pulses together), while this item asks when it was launched.
UPSC_2010_GS1_Q492010Quotes the mission's objective wording and asks for the crops, keyed to rice, wheat and pulses only. That answer reflects the 2007 launch and the Eleventh Plan; coarse cereals and commercial crops were added from 2014-15. This item asks the year rather than the crops.
UPSC_2009_GS1_Q92009Tests the implementing ministry by attributing NFSM to Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, which is wrong; the mission belongs to the Agriculture Ministry. Year and ministry are two separate identity handles for the scheme; this item covers the year half.
NDA_GAT_2025_I_Q992025Covers the later NFSM-Commercial Crops component, keyed to coffee as the crop not included; cotton, jute and sugarcane are. It shows how the mission expanded after the 2007 launch this item dates, and why 'rice, wheat, pulses' describes the origin, not the present scheme.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following crops was NOT a component of the National Food Security Mission when it was launched in October 2007?
- (a)Rice
- (b)Wheat
- (c)Pulses
- (d)Coarse cereals
Answerd — The NDC resolution of 29 May 2007 and the October 2007 launch covered rice, wheat and pulses. Coarse cereals were included from 2014-15 alongside commercial crops.Options (a), (b) and (c) are each one of the original three components, so each was already in the mission in 2007.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The National Food Security Mission was launched pursuant to a resolution adopted by which one of the following bodies?
- (a)National Development Council
- (b)Planning Commission
- (c)Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices
- (d)NITI Aayog
Answera — The NDC adopted the resolution at its 53rd meeting on 29 May 2007. The Planning Commission framed the Eleventh Plan but the mission's resolution came from the NDC.The CACP recommends minimum support prices, not schemes. NITI Aayog was set up in January 2015, years after the launch.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about the National Food Security Mission (NFSM): 1. It was launched in the first year of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. 2. Cotton, jute and sugarcane were brought under it as commercial crops from 2014-15. 3. It is implemented by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 2 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answerb — Statement 1 is correct: the Eleventh Plan ran 2007-12 and NFSM began in October 2007. Statement 2 is correct: NFSM-Commercial Crops covering cotton, jute and sugarcane dates from 2014-15.Statement 3 is wrong: the mission sits with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution administers the National Food Security Act, 2013. Options (a), (c) and (d) each drop a true statement or keep the false one.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the National Development Council resolution that created the National Food Security Mission, the additional annual production of pulses targeted by the end of the Eleventh Plan was
- (a)2 million tonnes
- (b)4 million tonnes
- (c)8 million tonnes
- (d)10 million tonnes
Answera — The May 2007 resolution set 2 million tonnes for pulses, against 10 for rice and 8 for wheat.Option (b) is the Twelfth Plan pulses target, not the Eleventh. Options (c) and (d) are the Eleventh Plan figures for wheat and rice respectively.