CB BureauAbundance is not necessarily good news. Don’t we
know that all too well by now?
Someone who likes to repeat his examples will
refer us to the increasingly increasing wealth of the lucky few which has made
the gap between the haves and the have-nots seem larger than ever. In a society
that has newly acquired the courage to aspire, the gap cannot be ignored for
too long a time. This much, societies across the world have sooner or later
found out.
Anyway, the fallout of inequality of wealth is not
the subject under the scanner here. As stated, that was the done-to-death
example the imagined someone would present to a vexed audience.
The downright truth is almost never palatable.
Gulp down is more like it.
Then, when it comes to rotten grains, even gulping
down is not an option. Grains that are rotten must be wasted and consigned to
monetarily expensive and environmentally unsound disposal processes.
Over the last ten years, more than 10 lakh tonnes
of foodgrains have rotted in the godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Those foodgrains, worth several hundred crore of rupees, could have fed over
one crore hungry people for a year. It will be repetitive to dismiss this
couple of facts as colossal wastage. It is inhuman, more than anything else, in
a country where the numbers of the hungry are a reflection of devastating
realities and a mere matter of statistics for those who take gourmet food for
granted.
The foodgrains damages mentioned above were
suffered despite the FCI spending an estimated Rs 242 crore (Rs 2.42 billion)
while trying to prevent any loss of foodgrains during storage. Add to that
another Rs 2.59 crore that was spent just to dispose off the rotten foodgrains.
In 2008, the FCI informed that 183,000 tonnes of
wheat, 395,000 tonnes of rice, 22 thousand tonnes of paddy and 110 tonnes of
maize were damaged between 1997 and 2007. During the same period, in the
northern region — UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab,
Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi — the damage incurred was 700,000
tonnes. The PSU spent Rs 87.15 crore (Rs 871 million) to prevent the loss
besides spending over Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6 million) to dispose off the damaged food
grain.
In August last year, several newspapers brought to
mainstream notice that thousands of tonnes of grain were rotting in the open in
Punjab and other states because of insufficient godown facilities. One NDTV
report showed dogs eating grain in Uttar Pradesh, where poverty and
malnourishment are endemic. Another showed officials trying to burn grain
because they had not been able to distribute it to families entitled to free
rations. None of us will dispute that the farce here is larger than life.
The Supreme Court, while hearing an ongoing PIL on
various food security-related issues filed by the Peoples Union for Civil
Liberties, ordered the government to distribute the grain free if they were not
able to store it. As it turned out, no one was the wiser in the aftermath of
the vague tit-for-tat that ensued. Calm settled upon all and all was soon
forgotten.
The curse of the
plenty
Now, in March 2011, the year that will likely witness the
country’s highest-ever wheat crop, the matter of foodgrains abundance again
assumes importance. The union ministry of agriculture had in February estimated
that the 2010-11 harvest of foodgrains will be, at 2,321 lakh tonnes, the
second highest of all time. Of this, the rice harvest was estimated at 940 lakh
tonnes and wheat at 815 lakh tonnes, a record.
So, is the government prepared to store the grain?
As of mid-February, the total effective capacity
available for storage stood at less than 300 lakh tonnes, and of this, more
than 75 per cent was in use. The government’s foodgrain procurement target for
the upcoming season is of 263 lakh tonnes. This target can have an upward
revision if harvests are higher.
AK Ganguly (nominated member of Rajya Sabha) has
warned that India is sitting on a grain-bomb. ‘The country needs additional
storage capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes, and only 1 per cent was created in 2010,’
he said.
The Supreme Court bench had, in the same instance
last August, asked the Centre to ensure construction of a big godown in each
state besides separate godowns in different districts and divisions within the
states, and expedite the computerization process of the public distribution
system (PDS) to check pilferage and corruption. The measures suggested by the
apex court included: (a) increase in the quantum of food supply to the
population below poverty line; (b) opening fair price shops on all 30 days a
month; and (c) distribute foodgrain to the deserving population at a very low
cost or no cost.
The space for foodgrain storage is made available
to the FCI through its own godowns and those hired by state governments, the
Central Warehousing Corporation, state warehousing corporations and private
parties. About 10 per cent of the total storage space is ‘cover and plinth’
(where grains are stored in plastic covered in an elevated ground). The last
mentioned has been criticized by experts as being inadequate.
There has been a very slow rate of increase in the
FCI’s storage capacity. It was able to add only 28,000 tonnes of constructed
space between 2007 and 2010.
The union government has been trying to encourage
private parties to construct godowns, which it can hire. Faced with a
lackadaisical response from the private sector, the government raised the
period for which it would guarantee to hire the space from five years to seven
years, to now ten years. In addition, several restrictions were dropped. The
government has sanctioned the creation of 150 lakh tonnes of additional
storage. As of end-February, only 1.13 lakh tonnes of storage space was
constructed.
Admitting that the moisture and temperature
control system of the Chinese was far superior, the then Minister of State for
Food and Agriculture KV Thomas stated in June last year that India was
exploring the possibility of using Chinese technology to store rice and wheat
for longer periods. The minister noted that China, one of the largest producers
of foodgrains in the world, managed to store 150 million tonnes of foodgrains
in its godowns – which was much higher than India’s 40-60 million tonnes. He
had also assured that the government would soon send a team of experts to China
to study the applicability of its technology in India for largescale foodgrain
storage.
Results on that front are awaited.
Meanwhile, the ministry of agriculture has
recommended an enhanced subsidy for its flagship scheme, the Gramin Bhandaran
Yojana (GBY), to support rural godowns, by proposing to increase the size of
godowns eligible for subsidy from 10,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes. This
capital-investment subsidy scheme for construction and renovation of rural
godowns facilitates creation of scientific storage capacity. The main objective
is to meet the requirements of farmers for storing farm produce, processed farm
produce and agricultural inputs. It also promotes grading and standardisation,
as well as stresses quality control of the agri-produce, to improve their
marketability and prevent distress sale immediately after harvest.
Results will, of course, be awaited with a large
degree of interest.
A grain of a thought
Juxtaposing the above state of
affairs with a scenario that may at first glance appear disconnected, let us
consider how the economics of the integrated child development scheme (ICDS)
works.
The ICDS is a centrally-sponsored child nutrition
scheme implemented by state governments through a network of centres known as
anganwadis. On paper, the 36-year-old ICDS is targeted at about 7.3 crore
children between 0-6 years who are required to be given 500-600 kilo calories a
day, with a spending of Rs 4 to Rs 6 per child. However, the government’s own
study has said that only 31.1 per cent of the targeted children receive
supplementary nutrition.
If Rs 6 as the daily budget for a child’s food
needs seems to somewhat defy logic, think in terms of ‘paise’. Indeed, in Tamil
Nadu, which leads in implementing the integrated child development scheme, 55
paise is all that is allocated towards purchase of vegetables, fuel and
condiments per child a day in an anganwadi. Here’s the break-up: 25 paise for
vegetables, 19 paise for fuel and 11 paise for condiments. The rice and dal is
procured from the PDS.
In a country where 46 per cent children below
three years are underweight, the rotten tale of foodgrains storage is a joke
sans the laughs and with nothing redeeming about it.
Is it not thinkable that the surplus grains in,
say, Punjab be transported to the anganwadis in Tamil Nadu, so that the
supervisor at a given anganwadi does not have to compromise on either the
quantity or the quality of food fed to the children? What comes in the way of implementing
something like this? Fifty-five thousand metric tonnes of food grains did rot
in Punjab last year. Who is to assure that the magnitude of loss will be any
lesser this year? Who will take charge of transporting the surplus foodgrains
to the ones who need it the most?
The buzz around foodgrain storage and the threat
of rot is starting to pick up. The consequence of a bumper harvest and
inadequate storage will once more have us reading those familiar headlines in
the papers. There will be criticisms galore. National indignation will be at an
all-time high. Some of us will not feel the heat in any way. Inflation or not,
food on the table is assured. Some of us will make do with whatever we can
scramble together. The rest will retire to their beds hungry as usual.
Somewhere else, copious amounts of
foodgrains will lie in majestic, forbidden mounds.