Check leakages to execute food Act efficiently

Increase in offtake under various public distribution schemes.

Supply of wheat and rice will have to be doubled if the proposed National Food Security Act for targeted beneficiaries is implemented with the current delivery mechanism, in which leakages are too high, the Economic Survey for 2010-11 has said.

“Once we give a legal guarantee to people about the food that they are to receive, if we try to deliver on this promise using our current delivery mechanism, we shall have to send twice the targeted amount of grain towards the targeted population,” the survey said. In 2009-10, the total offtake of foodgrains from ration shops was 42.4 million tonnes.
 

FACTSHEET
Year	Food subsidy (Rs cr)	% Annual growth
2004-05	25,746.45	2.33
2005-06	23,071.00	-10.39
2006-07	23,827.59	3.28
2007-08	31,259.68	31.19
2008-09	43,668.08	39.69
2009-10	58,242.00	33.37
20010-11	51,196.97	33.37

The survey points to an increase in offtake under various public distribution schemes due to a non-revision of the issue price vis-a-vis the open market price. The issue price of wheat and rice has remained unchanged for more than nine years. Since 2002 when the last revision in issue price was undertaken, the food subsidy has more than doubled from Rs 24,176 crore (2002-03) to Rs 58,242 crore (2009-10). Food subsidy is projected to touch a record high of Rs 74,000 crore.

To arrest the declining per capita availability of foodgrains, the survey had stressed the need for a second green revolution while highlighting the need for higher investments for creating adequate infrastructure for transport, storage and distribution of agricultural produce. With record government grain procurements for public distribution in the last few years, the survey calls for urgent attention to efficient food stocks management and timely offloading of stocks.

“The country has made great strides towards increasing foodgrain production since the mid-sixties. However, the agricultural sector in India is at a crossroads with rising demand for food items and a relatively slower response to the supply of many commodities, resulting in frequent spikes in food inflation. The technological breakthrough achieved in the 1960s is gradually waning. The need for a second green revolution is being experienced more than ever before,” the survey said.

For ensuring nutritional security, the survey has emphasised an increase in per capita availability of foodgrains while ensuring that right quantities of food items are there in the food basket of the common man.