India’s record grain stock starts to rot
09 Jun 2012
Foodgrain stock with government agencies is estimated to touch 80 million tonnes by the end of June 2012, about 48 million tonnes more than the buffer requirements of 31.9 million tonnes.
The record grain stock comes on top of a record annual production of food grains and carryover stock with procurement agencies.
India reported an all-time high foodgrain production in 2011-12, on top of two consecutive years of record grain production, but much of it is left to rot while millions of people in the country go hungry.
While rising grain production is accompanied by a similar jump in prices as well, much of the incremental production is going waste.
Food grain production in the country touched an all time high of 252.56 million tonnes during 2011-12, up 7.78 milion tonnes from 244.78 million tonnes produced in the previous year (2010-11).