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Rediff.com  » Business » States' limited grain offtake adds to storage woes

States' limited grain offtake adds to storage woes

By Sanjeeb Mukherjee
June 29, 2011 18:19 IST
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FarmersDespite an increase in storage capacities, large quantities of grains do not find adequate space, following successive years of poor lifting of additional grains allocated to states.

Officials from the food ministry said if the situation continued, the country could face a problem of plenty, as grain stocks this year are at a high level of 65 million tonnes (mt), while the total storage space available with the Food Corporation of India and state agencies, both covered and uncovered, is estimated at 63 mt as on June 1.

Procurement of wheat in the 2011-12 crop season, which started in April, is estimated to be 27.5 mt, while rice procurement is over 30 mt.

"Since May last year, the central government has allocated millions of tonnes of grains to states under special allocation, but the offtake by them has been poor, which has caused the storage problem we are facing," a ministry official said.

He said despite that FCI along with its affiliates had made adequate arrangements to ensure that minimum quantity of grains lay in the open during the monsoon season.

He said once the proposed Food Security Bill came into force, the country would need around 70 mt grains in the central pool, whereas the current annual procurement of grains is 53-55

mt.

"We should be ready to significantly raise our output and procurement and simultaneously ensure that old stocks are liquidated to meet the requirement of Food Security Bill," he said, adding "or else, we could face some sort of crisis in the next 3-4 four years".

In May 2010, the central government had allocated over 3 mt grains to states under a special arrangement, of which just about 40 per cent was lifted by the states.

Three months later, a similar allocation was made, this time for the above poverty line families, of which around 56 per cent was lifted by the states.

In January this year, another special allocation of 2.5 mt was done by the Centre for the APL families, of which about 21 per cent was lifted during the six-month validity period.

A special allocation of five mt grains was done in January for below poverty line families for six months ending June, but just around 54 per cent was lifted by the states.

"If such low quantities of grains are lifted by the states, despite them being allocated by the Centre, how can we create storage space for new grains?" the official asked.

He said huge quantities of grains have been procured in some states without ensuring that they have adequate storage space.

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Sanjeeb Mukherjee in New Delhi
Source: source
 

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