The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to tie up with rice mills for increasing supply of fortified rice via ration shops and other welfare schemes as 112 aspirational districts of 15 states have been identified for distribution of fortified rice. Five states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh have already started the distribution of fortified rice in their identified districts.
At a high level meeting chaired by Union Consumer Affairs minister Piyush Goyal, the FCI has been asked to come up with a comprehensive plan for procurement and distribution of fortified rice in all the Districts of the country under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day?Meal (MDM) Scheme from 2021-2022. It was felt that “there is a need to scale up the supply of Fortified Rice Kernels(FRK), whose availability currently is at a meagre quantity of 15,000 tonnes per annum,” the ministry said.
Covering 112 Aspirational Districts for PDS, ICDS and MDM would mean requirement of nearly 130 Lakh MT of Fortified Rice, for which FRK supply capacity in the country needs to go up?to nearly 1.3 Lakh MT. ?If the entire PDS (NFSA) rice supply which is of the order of about 350 Lakh MT is to be fortified, then there has to be an uninterrupted supply pipeline of FRK from the industry of the order of about 3.5 Lakh MT.
Further, there are nearly 28,000 Rice Mills in the country which need to be equipped with Blending Machines etc. for mixing of FRK with?normal rice. FCI has been asked to tie up with the rice mills in different regions for necessary investments in this regard.
Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying of the surface of ordinary rice grains in several layers with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.