After getting around Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to agree on an Ordinance on Food Security Bill, Union ministry of food is gearing up to confront the NCP strongman again by seeking procurement of foodgrains to be capped. The ministry of agriculture favours open ended procurement so that all those who want to sell their grains can do to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The government, after committing a massive subsidy burden for food security, is seeking to cut down expenses on procurement, storage, etc. The ministry of consumer affairs is learnt to have advocated that there should be a cap on the procurement of grains so that the private players too get chances to buy directly from the farmers. Currently, the FCI buys grains on the procurement price fixed by the government on the basis of the minimum support price for wheat and paddy.
“There are certain issues which need to be addressed, including the problem of storage. The FCI is holding more grains than required, which often result in wastage apart from addition to costs,” said a senior official.
The ministry of agriculture, however, wants to continue with the current practice of the open-ended procurement in a bid to ensure that the farmers are not turned away from the mandis, who, in turn, could be exploited by the private players. “There are cases like the procurement of grains from the Punjab area in 2009 still lying unutilised. Therefore, the government needs to check the procurement of grains and to limit to a certain level,” added the official.
Last year, there was record procurement of wheat and rice, which shot up the central pool stock, with the government resorting to the options to export and offer the grains to bulk buyers to reduce the stock. In rabi marketing season April-March 2012-13, record quantity of 381.48 lakh tonnes wheat was procured, while during kharif marketing season, October 2011-September 2012, 350.36 lakh tonnes of rice was procured for the central pool.