Rice, wheat buffer stock move may push market prices up
In a final push to the food security law, the Union cabinet on Thursday would consider a proposal to increase buffer stock of two vital food grains, rice and wheat, by about 60% for easy roll-out of the programme.
In a final push to the food security law, the Union cabinet on Thursday would consider a proposal to increase buffer stock of two vital food grains, rice and wheat, by about 60% for easy roll-out of the programme.
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Such stocking may trigger an increase in prices of food grains in the open market.
The food security law was enacted in September 2013 and state governments have one year for implementing it.
The law provides for priority households (existing below poverty line) getting 5 kg of food grains per month, and Antyodaya (extremely poor) households 35 kg per month.
The combined coverage of priority and Antyodaya households should be 75% of the total rural population and 50% of the urban population.
The food ministry has proposed a change in regulations to maintain a minimum 150 metric tonnes of buffer stock in a year. As of now, the minimum buffer stock is 99.30 metric tonnes in a year.
The government maintains buffer stock on quarterly basis for operational and strategic purposes. The operational purpose is to provide food grains for the public distribution system (PDS) as per quota fixed for each state. The strategic stock is for meeting emergency situations such as droughts and natural calamities.
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The food ministry has proposed a substantial increase in both operational and strategic stock. This is what could possibly affect open market prices.
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The food ministry has proposed a substantial increase in both operational and strategic stock. This is what could possibly affect open market prices.
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With change in buffer stock requirement, the government will need an increase in capacity of silos to store additional food grains.
The cabinet has already approved a policy for public private partnership to build international quality silos. According to an official source, the response of private players to the policy has been poor because of “inflexible” norms.
The Food Corporation of India often faces criticism over its storage facilities and large amount of food stock going waste.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
