New Delhi , April 3: The government appears to have a problem of plenty with the rabi season having yielded a bumper crop. So it has planned what is described as “heavy evacuation” of food grains with the procurement season having kicked off on April 1.
It is also making efforts to ensure that adequate storage space is available for the huge yield.
It is ironic that at a time when the Centre is trying to enact a food security law to ensure nobody goes hungry, the nation has a paucity of warehouses, which in turn leads to wastage of food grains.
However, food ministry officials maintained that the countrywide wastage of food grains primarily due to shortage of storage facilities was small. It was just 0.02 million tonnes, valued at Rs 13 crores, against the 91.3 million tonnes handled in 2008-09, they said.
Crop production this year is expected to be around 80 million tonnes. While this is roughly the same as the yield in 2009, the total storage capacity available with the Food Corporation of India, State Warehousing Corporations and other agencies is around 60 million tonnes, leaving a substantial shortfall of around 20 million tonnes.
Shortage of storage space is a matter of considerable concern as it leads to wastage as grains then have to be stored in the open. For instance, in Punjab, which is a major producer state for wheat, most of the grain is stored in the open. The state needs an additional six million tonnes of storage space as nearly 13 million tonnes of the total 18 million tonnes storage space in Punjab is occupied.
“Storage is a matter of concern. We are going the whole hog to arrange storage for all the grains we procure,” said a senior official in the food ministry. Keeping this is mind, the Centre has asked the states to hire more private storage space. It has also planned heavy evacuation of food grains from major wheat-producing states, like Punjab and Haryana, to consumer states to deal with the problem.
The FCI which purchases around 15 per cent of the wheat crop, had a storage capacity of around 28 million tonnes as on January this year. Out of the 80 million tonnes of yield expected this year, states will procure around 26 million tonnes. But this doesn’t solve the problem of storage and wastage.
Amit Agnihotri