In the midst of desperate efforts by the Government to enact the food security legislation, two senior Union Ministers on Friday raised the red flag on the country’s storage capacity, which is important for proper implementation of the multi-billion scheme.
Replying to questions on the status of storage capacity of food grains, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the value of annual wastage of fruits and vegetables was estimated at Rs 13,309 crore. However, if the wastage value of rice, wheat, cereals and others are taken into account, it would go up to Rs 44,000 crore a year.
Pawar said the Saumitra Chaudhuri Committee, constituted by the Planning Commission in 2012, has indicated a requirement of 61.3 million tonnes of cold storage in the country against the present capacity of around 29 million tonnes, adding the present gap is around 32 million tonnes. His deputy Tariq Anwar said FDI inflow in cold storage sector so far amounted to Rs 2,000 crore Pawar said the Government provided financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 50 per cent of the total cost of project in most States and at the rate of 75 per cent in difficult areas, including northeastern States, for creation of cold chain infrastructure. The ceiling is, however, at Rs 10 crore. Asked to spell the steps taken to store wheat and rice, Food Minister KV Thomas said total covered storage capacity for food grain available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) is 355.19 lakh tonnes.
For creation of additional storage capacity, the Government has formulated a scheme called Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme for guaranteed hiring by FCI.
However, Thomas conceded the worrisome fact that in 2013-14, against a target of 613 lakh tonne capacity creation under the PEG scheme, only 3.36 lakh tonnes had been created up to July. Naresh Gujral (SAD) said more than 12 lakh tonnes of wheat was now lying in the open in Punjab and six million tonnes was out in the open in Haryana. Naresh Agarwal (SP) said the Government should also mention the lack of storage capacity in Uttar Pradesh.
Thomas said as against the requirement of 62 million tonnes of food grain for implementation of the Food Security Bill, the Government procured 82 million tonnes. The subsidy outgo will be Rs 1,25,000 crore, Thomas said, adding the subsidy for implementing the Public Distribution System was Rs 1,09,000 crore last year which will rise to Rs 1,13,000 crore this year.
He, however, informed the House that wheat procurement by Government agencies this year will fall to about 25 million tonnes from 38 million tonnes last year due to aggressive buying by private traders. "This season production has been good but procurement will come down from 38 million tonnes (last year) to 25 million tonnes as private players are aggressively buying food grain," he said. Private traders are buying wheat at a rate higher than the Government's Minimum Support Price which stands at Rs 1,350 per quintal.