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STORAGE & POST HARVEST LOSS
On 1st July 2012, FCI was in possession of 30.71 million metric (MMT) of rice, 49.81
MMT of wheat and 0.53 MMT of coarse grains; totaling 80.56 MMT of food grains.
Food Corporation of India,
setup in 1964, is a nodal agency entrusted with the task of
- Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to
ensure National Food Security.
- Distribution of food grains throughout the country for public distribution system
(FCI).
In 2013, Comptroller and Auditor
General of India issued a performance audit report in which following observations
were made
- The stock of food grains in the central pool touched a record 82.4 million metric
tons (MMT), while rental storage space increased from a 10 MMT to 18 MMT; resulting
in a three-fold increase in hiring charges from INR 322 crore in 2006-07
to INR 1,119 crore in 2011-12.
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- Lack of available storage capacity with FCI, delayed lifting of wheat stocks procured
by state government agencies (SGA) for central pool; leading to a 9 fold increase
in payments for carry over charges to SGAs from INR 175 crores (USD 28 million)
in 2006-07 to INR 1,635 crores (USD 261.6 million) by 2011-12 (CAG, 2013).
GRAIN EXIM STATISTICS VS.
FARMER SUICIDES
- EXIM statistics for wheat, from years 2003 – 2014 show exports totaling 19.7 MMT
and imports of 8.3 MMT from countries, including Pakistan and Nepal (DGCIS).
In 2013, a total of 11,744 farmers committed suicides of which 10,462 were males
and 1,282 were females (NCRB, 2015).
POST HARVEST LOSS
Post harvest losses at FCI from 1997 – 2013 totaled 635,595 metric tons of wheat
and paddy/ rice.
- A Right to Information (RTI) application was filed in March 2013 with Food Corporation
of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), to determine the extent
of food losses; waste and spoilage of food grains (wheat, rice and coarse grains)
in terms of quantity and by year, since 1997.
- While, authorities at the CWC expressed their inability to provide details of post
harvest losses at their storage facilities, FCI informed that post harvest losses
to the tune of 502,389 metric tons of rice and 133,206 metric tons of wheat, were
incurred at their storage facilities from 1997 – 2013.
- India incurs post harvest fruits and vegetable losses worth over INR 2 lakh crore
(USD 32 billion) each year, owing to the absence of food processing units, modern
cold storage facilities and a callous attitude towards tackling the grave issue
of post harvest losses (Assocham, 2013)