Per capita availability of foodgrains dips in 2010: Govt

The availability of foodgrains per person per year had declined by 1.23% to 160.1 kg in 2010, Parliament was informed today.

The per capita availability of foodgrains (wheat, rice, cereals and pulses) per person annually stood at 162.1 kg in 2009.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Food Minister KV Thomas said the per capita availability of foodgrains compares well with the normative per capita cereal requirement of the National Institute of Nutrition's at 157 kg per annum.

"The government has made a total allocation of 615.26 lakh tonnes of foodgrains during 2011-12 through the Public Distribution (PDS) system," he added.

Apart from PDS, government has also allocated 123.69 lakh tonne foodgrains for Antyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY), Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) families, including 23.69 lakh tonne for 174 poorest districts in 27 states/union territories, Thomas said.

To a separate query, the minister said that 212.55 lakh tonne wheat and 331.78 lakh tonne rice was available in the Central pool as of March 1, 2012.

There has also been record procurement of wheat and rice during rabi and kharif marketing seasons 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, Thomas added.

As of March 15, 2012, the procurement of wheat in the 2011-12 marketing year (April-March) was 283.35 lakh tonne, while that of rice stood at 276.04 lakh tonne in the 2011-12 marketing year (October-September), he noted.

On the issue of prices, Thomas said that the prices of wheat and rice are stable in the country.

"The prices of sugar, major pulses and edible oils are either stable or have shown marginal increase," he added.

To another question on insufficient arrangements for official procurement forcing farmers to sell their produce below minimum support price (MSP), Thomas said that no such reports have been received.

For the procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season, 26,148 purchasing centres have been set up, which include 416 centres of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and 25,434 centres by the state governments. He added.