  Formamide (NH$_2$CHO), a potential prebiotic precursor, has been proposed to
play an important role in the context of origin of life on our planet. It has
been observed in different environments in space including the protostellar
regions and comets. The abundance and stability of NH$_2$CHO in the early
stages of star formation can be better understood by incorporating the
formation and destruction data in the astrochemical models. We carried out an
experimental investigation to study the destruction of pure NH$_2$CHO ice at 12
K by the interaction of Ly$\alpha$ (121.6 nm) photons. The UV photo destruction
of NH$_2$CHO was studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. After
UV processing, the intensity of NH$_2$CHO IR bands decreases and new bands
corresponding to HCN, CO, NH$_4^+$ OCN$^-$, HNCO, and CO$_2$ appeared in the
spectrum. Destruction and cumulative product formation cross-sections were
derived. The comparison of destruction rate derived from the cross-section in
cold and dense molecular cloud for different energetic processing agents,
reveals that UV photons induces an order of magnitude higher NH$_2$CHO
destruction than cosmic rays, but three orders of magnitude lower than for H
atoms.
