The government is actively considering merging several schemes to develop the “world’s largest grain storage” scheme. More importantly, the plan was distributed to the Union ministries and departments in the wake of soaring global food prices due to geo-political uncertainties caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic.
Several programmes under ministries including the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, consumer affairs, food and public distribution and food processing will soon be merged, the Mint reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the development.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global food supplies and a sharp rise in food prices increased food security concerns in several countries. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest suppliers of wheat and barley. Although India was less impacted by the disruptions in grain supplies, prices of edible oils went to a record level due to disruptions in production and shipping. India, despite having large arable land, suffers from low productivity.
Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, told the financial daily: “We have been lagging behind in terms of stored grains and storage capacity. So now, the government is trying to ramp up. The most important thing in the storage plan will be to see if it’s going to be modern storage or if the old system will be followed, where each man carries a sack and builds a storage pyramid. A mechanised system is far more transparent and much more modern.”
“We don’t even have 2 million tonnes of storage in silos. The storage plan has been in the works for a long time, and it’s only now the government is trying to implement it,” he added.
The Centre has extended the free ration scheme, popularly known as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), for the next three months till December 31, taking the programme’s total expenditure to Rs 3.91 lakh crore.
This year, the country’s cereal stocks, held by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), dropped to a five-year low. The storage capacity varied from 75 million tonnes (mt) to 85 mt in 2022.
Making gains over the last decade, India is ranked at 68th position in the Global Food Security (GFS) Index of 113 countries, as per the global report released by Economist Impact and Corteva Agriscience.
Siraj Hussain, a former agriculture secretary, told the daily: “It is a good idea to merge the schemes under which a grant is provided by the government of India for the creation of storage capacity through traditional warehouses, silos and cold storages.
However, it must be noted that the state governments also contribute to most of the centrally sponsored schemes to the extent of 40 per cent. The real benefit of such storage will come only if there is compulsory registration of warehouses with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority.”
Recently, at the recent G20 summit in Bali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the current fertiliser shortage could endanger food security.
