Record output bolsters food law

The estimated all time high foodgrain output this year solves one of the major worries of the UPA government vis-à-vis the implementation of its ambitious food security law.

Bolstered by the record production of wheat and rice this year, the government has pegged the food grain output in 2011-12 to touch an all-time high of over 250 million tonnes.

This is the second successive year when the harvest is going to be record. Last year, the country had produced 244.78 million tonnes of grains.

Although experts believe that it is the procurement and the distribution, which is more worrisome as far as the food security law is concerned, some, including Farm Minister Sharad Pawar have warned that its implementation would be difficult unless agricultural productivity improves.

Estimates suggest that between 650 and 700 lakh tonnes of food grain would be required to implement the proposed food law.

India produces much more than that to take care of its poor.

As regards the rising requirement of food grains for distribution under the law, the government maintains that only 15 per cent more supplies would be needed to take care of the entire need.

The Centre is already distributing 526.8 lakh tonnes through public distribution system. But, experts are of the view that delivery mechanism needs to be strengthened. According to principal advisor Planning Commission, Pronab Sen, the government needs to augment its supply mechanism and remove loopholes from the public distribution system for the benefits to reach the poor.

He accepts that may be, in future, India would need to increase productivity as demand under the law increases. “For the time being we have enough grains to take care of the law,” Sen recently told Deccan Herald.

Eminent economist and former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Professor B B Bhattacharya also is of the view that the government’s delivery mechanism has to be revamped for the food grain to reach intended beneficiaries.

Then there is problem of storage. Currently, the state-run Food Corporation of India) and the Central Warehousing Corp have the capacity to store only 87 million tonnes of grain.

The CWC has 487 warehouses with a capacity of 10.6 million, while the FCI, with 1,500 godowns, accounts for the rest.

The warehousing problem needs to be looked at urgently, say experts, to make food law a success.