The Stink Continues...

I recently read an article in The Indian Express written by Sukhdeep Kaur. The article had a beautiful and eye catching headline : There's A Stink in the Godown.

Broadly, the article talked about how there have been several occasions on which lacs of metric tonnes of rice, paddy and wheat have rotten in the open due to lack of storage. There has been continuous coverage on the same in recent past by almost all news channels.

At a time when the parliament was held up by the opposition on raising food grain prices, proper and safe storage of food grain stocks has been neglected conveniently, either due to the surplus produce or due to the lack of storage space and facilities.

Talking statistically, over 12 lakh metric tonnes of rice, paddy and wheat have rotted in Punjab godowns alone. The agency responsible for managing food stocks in India, The Food Corporation of India (FCI), stores the entire stocks of rice and 15 percent wheat procured from Punjab for central pool. Nearly 2.94 lakh MT rice and 1.18 lakh MT paddy (unmilled rice) have been declared as damaged by the agency between 2001 and 2010. In case of wheat, the damage amounts to 43,872 lakh MT, against nearly 8 lakh MT that rotted in the custody of the five state agencies, which store 85 per cent of the wheat procured for the central pool.

The figures are mind boggling, aren’t they?!! The condition is so bad that the damaged stocks are being auctioned as cattle and animal feed, industrial use or manure!! Yes, you heard it right. With people dying of hunger and malnutrition everyday, and food prices escalating and reaching the roof almost every quarter, this is the best way our authorities can manage the precious produce!!

But some would think what options do the authorities have? The stock which has rotten cannot be utilized for any other purpose, so rather than wasting it, why not feed it to the animals and the industries!! Justified. There is a huge surplus of produce also because of the low private purchase of grains and rice.

So the question remains….

What needs to be monitored? The surplus, the buffer stocks or the storage which ultimately decides the fate of the precious produce-whether surplus or deficit.