It is estimated that food grain worth Rs 60,000 crore have been left to rot. Who is responsible?

This figure is highly exaggerated. According to a study by the agriculture ministry, only 0.004 percent of stored food grain are rotten. There were 11,708 tonnes of damaged and non-issuable food grain in Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots. However, the whole lot hasn’t become spoilt. This quantity has become non-issuable to beneficiaries of the public distribution system because of various reasons. Some amount gets damaged during transportation. At the same time, I must confess that we should not tolerate any kind of wastage. Both the FCI and the state governments are responsible for the lost food grain.

Did your ministry take any action to stop the rot?

We did. We sent senior officials to take stock of the situation. We have taken stringent action against erring FCI officials. The state governments will have to take action as well. We are formulating a mechanism to check the quality of food grain that are still in the open and see what can be saved. The ministry is studying the recommendations of Dr MS Swaminathan for building a network of ultramodern storages across the country.

But there is an impression that the government did not react in time, and that it did not care...

It is wrong to say that. The empowered group of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ascertained the status of stocks in FCI godowns. In 2005-06, there was a food grain shortage. Many godowns were vacant. We were asked why godowns are vacant and the ministry was severely criticised. Eventually, the FCI had to close some godowns. Now, we have a situation of surplus.

But how will you explain the disconnect between starvation and the wastage of food grain?

The FCI has dual responsibility. Its first priority is to provide minimum support price to farmers. It has been doing that very well. Its second responsibility is procurement of food grain and its storage. The FCI has had decent success in providing a fair price to farmers and stabilising the market from volatile prices. Storage has been an issue, but the distribution is the state government’s responsibility. Kerala has not offloaded its assigned quota of food grain. At the same time, Punjab and Haryana are fighting for increasing their quota.

The plan for a decentralised storage facility has been hanging fire for 40 years. What is the best way to solve the crisis?

We are improving our storage mechanism. We have leased godowns from private players for a huge amount of money. Earlier, we had signed a seven-year lease with private players, which has now been extended to 10 years. We are doing a financial assessment of building new warehouses. We cannot build warehozuses overnight. The FCI follows certain labour laws and the corporation’s workforce is active only during the procurement season. They need to be active throughout the year.

Does the FCI have enough space to store food grain?

We need to improve the corporation’s storage mechanism. There is a need for better coordination between the FCI and state governments to avoid a mess like this one.

Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 32, 14 August, 2010, http://www.tehelka.com/story_main46.asp?filename=Ne140810Estimates.asp