ENSURING FOOD
SECURITY FOR ALL
Sharad Yadav *
The Government is committed
to ensuring food security for all, create a hunger-free India
and reform and improve the Public Distribution System (PDS) so
as to serve the poorest of the poor in rural and urban areas alike.
To fulfill this commitment,
the Government launched the Antyodaya Anna Yojana on December
25, 2000. Under this scheme, foodgrains are being provided to
one crore poorest of the poor families at highly subsidised rates
– Rs.2 a kg for wheat and Rs.3 a kg for rice. The Antyodaya families
have been identified from out of 6.52 crore families living Below
the Poverty Line (BPL). For BPL families other than Antyodaya
families, foodgrains are being supplied at less than half the
economic cost. As announced in the Budget (2003-2004), the Antyodaya
Anna Yojana(AAY) is to be expanded to cover an additional 50 lakh
BPL families, raising the total coverage to 1.5 crore which is
around a quarter of the BPL families.
The allocation of
foodgrains to BPL families has been revised upwards. It was increased
from 10 kg per family per month to 35 kg per family per month.
The allocation in respect of AAY was 25 kg per family per month
to begin with. This has also been increased to 35 kg per family
per month from April 01,2002. The allocation for APL families
has also been fixed at 35 kg per family per month from this date.
With a record level
of procurement of wheat and rice, the stocks with the Food Corporation
of India (FCI) were bound to increase. The total stocks of rice
and wheat held by FCI and the State agencies as on February 01,2003
were 400.98 lakh tonne comprising 187.77 lakh tonne of rice and
213.21 lakh tonne of wheat. In order to liquidate the surplus
stock, the Government has taken several measures such as increasing
the scale of ration for BPL families, reducing the Central Issue
Prices (CIPs) for Above Poverty Line (APL) category from July
2001, allocating foodgrains for welfare schemes at BPL rates and
permitting the FCI to offer wheat and rice from the Central Pool
for exports.
Apart from the Antyodaya
Anna Yojana, the Food for Work Programme was launched in the drought-affected
States in January 2001. The programme was subsequently extended
to States affected by other natural calamities. On Independence
Day 2001, the Prime Minister announced the Sampoorn Gramin Rozgar
Yojana (SGRY) which is under implementation. Under SGRY, 50 lakh
tonne of foodgrains are being made available to the States and
UTs annually, free of cost. As a result of various measures taken
by the Government, the offtake of foodgrains from the Central
Pool increased considerably from 182.081 lakh tonne in 2000-01
to 313.036 tonne during 2001-02. The offtake during the current
year has further increased to 431.357 lakh tonne from April-February,
2003.
India has become
a major exporter of foodgrains. Wheat is now being exported to
29 countries and rice to 49 countries. A substantial amount of
foreign exchange has been earned through export of foodgrains.
To bring about transparency
and accountability in the public distribution system, the Government
issued Public Distribution System (Control) Order, 2001 on August
31, 2001. This Order, issued under Section 3 of the Essential
Commodities Act, 1955, provides for identification of families
below the poverty line; ration cards; scale and issue price; distribution
of foodgrains; licensing and monitoring. Any violation of the
Order is punishable under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
Storage
The Government announced
the National Policy on Handling, Storage and Transportation of
Foodgrains envisaging, inter alia, creation of storage infrastructure
with private sector participation. The FCI is to guarantee utilisation
of these facilities to the extent of 100 per cent for the first
ten years and 75 per cent for the next ten years. Further, the
Government has formulated a 7 Years Guarantee Scheme for construction
of godowns to raise the storage capacity in various States. Under
this programme, the FCI has given 7 years guarantee for creation
of additional covered storage capacity of 85.32 lakh MTs during
2001-2002 and 3.00 lakh MTs during 2002-2003.
The storage
capacity of FCI, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and the
State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs) as on February 01,2003 was
330.05 lakh tonne, 90.26 lakh tonne and 200.63 lakh tonne respectively.
The capacity of FCI includes 22.32 lakh tonne capacity hired from
CWC and 75.87 lakh tonne hired from SWCs.
The storage capacity
constructed by FCI and CWC during the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002)
was 3.97 lakh tonne and 10.41 lakh tonne respectively. The target
for construction in 2002-03 by FCI and CWC was 1.37 lakh tonne
and 3.25 lakh tonne respectively while the achievements upto February,
2003 by FCI and CWC was 0.79 lakh tonne respectively.
The Government amended
the Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962 in August, 2001. The amendment,
inter alia, enables the CWC to construct warehouses abroad and
also to enter into joint ventures.
Achievements
The Central Warehousing
Corporation became the first organisation in public warehousing
to be awarded with ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 Certifications.
The Corporation entered
into an agreement with Kandla Port Trust Authorities to bring
up Container Freight Station infrastructure within the port limits
after participating in a global tender. The Corporation took up
the management of Accompanied Cargo Warehouse at Indira Gandhi
International Terminal, New Delhi, which has given it rich experience
to enable it to manage the proposed courier terminals in Delhi
and Mumbai.
The Corporation was
selected by SAIL for undertaking the work of consignment agency
at Vadodra, Jaipur and Bharatpur in Rajasthan after an exhaustive
and repeated tender process. Having been nominated as the sole
canalising agency for vanaspati imports from Nepal, it undertook
an import of 88,145 tonne of vanaspati from Nepal through 258
registered importers in the country till March 2003.
The Ministry of External
Affairs advised the CWC to see the feasibility of bringing up
a cold storage at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The action is in hand.
The Ministry of Commerce gave it the responsibility of developing
a Land Customs Station at Petrapole on Indo-Bangladesh Border
for facilitation of impex trade between India and Bangladesh.
FCI
The main
activities of Food Corporation of India (FCI) are procurement,
distribution and storage of foodgrains. Scientific storage of
foodgrains at identified locations in the country ensures their
timely and adequate supply for distribution to the consumers through
a chain of fair price shops under PDS.
The procurement
of wheat and rice by FCI and State agencies has attained new heights
showing the success of the price support operations. The quantity
of wheat procured during the Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2001-02
was 206.30 lakh tonne as against 141.44 lakh tonne in 1999-2000.
During the Rabi Marketing Season 2002-03, 190.25 lakh tonne
of wheat had been procured. During the Kharif Marketing Season
(KMS) 2001-02, 209.27 lakh tonne of rice was procured as on September
23,2002 which is a record.
Besides constructing
its own godowns, FCI also hires storage capacity from the CWC,
SWCs, State agencies and private parties. As on February 28, 2003,
FCI had a total storage capacity of 32.38 million tonne. Its capacity
utilisation was 62 per cent.
During the 10th Five
Year Plan (2002-07), FCI proposes to construct 6.42 lakh tonne
of storage capacity. Out of this 0.94 lakh MTs has already been
realised during the Annual Plan 2002-2003 against the target of
1.37 lakh MTs. To achieve this capacity, the Ministry also released
Rs.30 crore which is inclusive of Rs.2 crore exclusively for the
North-Eastern Region.
A Regional Office
of FCI especially for Manipur and Nagaland with headquarters at
Dimapur, has been set up to ensure its smooth furnctioning in
foodgrains management in the North-Eastern Region as a whole.
Sugar
India leads in sugar
production in the world. To mitigate the hardships of the sugarcane
growers and help the sugar industry, the Government has created
a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonne of sugar from December 18, 2002.
This would involve an outgo of Rs. 412 crore from the Sugar Development
Fund. An additional amount of Rs. 374 crore would be released
by banks on account of the buffer stock. Besides, Rs. 786 crore
will be used exclusively for payment of cane price dues to sugarcane
growers for which rules are already in place. The Statutory Minimum
Price ( SMP) of sugarcane has been raised by Rs. 5 per quintal
for 2002-2003 sugar season. From June 21, 2002, the sugar factories
have been allowed to claim reimbursement of internal transport
incurred on export shipment of sugar. The levy obligation of sugar
factories has been reduced from 40 per cent to 10 per cent. The
reduction in levy obligation has enabled the sugar mills to sell
larger quantities of levy-free sugar at open market prices.
The Government has
decided to allow forward trading in sugar and a notification to
this effect was issued in May 2001. The Government has given "in
principle" clearances to three parties to set up the proposed
exchanges. One exchange in Mumbai has already been set up and
given recognition for a period of five years from June 20, 2002
to conduct future trading in sugar. The other two exchanges have
also completed the necessary infrastructure facilities and applied
to the Government for recognition.
The Government’s
efforts to promote the export of sugar have borne fruit. Sugar
export which was merely 0.13 lakh tonne in 1999-2000 financial
year, increased to 3.39 lakh tonne and 14.56 lakh tonne valued
at Rs.420.18 crore and Rs.1,728.04 crore in 2000-01 and 2001-02
respectively. As per published data of the Directorate General
of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata, the quantity
of sugar exported between April, 2002 and December, 2002 is 9.79
lakh tonne valued at Rs.1034.42 crore. The exports during the
2002-03 financial year are expected to be at the same level as
during the financial year 2001-02.
The Government amended
the Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 in May 2002 to enable it
to give loans from the Sugar Development Fund at concessional
rates of interest to sugar factories for undertaking bagasse-based
cogeneration of power projects and for production of anhydrous
alcohol or ethanol from alcohol. Necessary amendments to the SDF
Rules, 1983 have since been notified.
The Sugarcane
(Control) Order, 1966 was amended in November, 2000 to enable
the State Governments to recover cane price dues, including arrears,
as arrears of land revenue.
*
Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
