Fortified rice available via PDS, to cover whole India by Mar 24: Food Secy

Fortified rice is being distributed via public distribution system (PDS) in 269 districts so far and will cover the rest of the districts well before the deadline of March 2024, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2021 said the government aims to distribute fortified rice via the government schemes by 2024.

Thereafter, a scheme for the distribution of fortified rice, containing prescribed micronutrients (Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12) was launched on October 2021 in a phased manner in order to address the problem of anaemia in children and women.

Addressing a press conference, Chopra said fortified rice distribution in the last two phases has been implemented successfully.

"This is a unique and very successful initiative of the central government which has given extremely good results in the past two years. We are extremely enthused by the response we got from the public," he said.

There was a certain misconception but that has been cleared. This will lay the foundation of a healthy India, he added.

According to the Secretary, "We have covered distribution of fortified rice via PDS (also called ration shops) in 269 districts so far. The pace at which we are progressing, the rest of the rice-eating districts will be covered much before the deadline."

There are about 735 districts in the country, of which more than 80 per cent are with rice-eating population, he said.

Chopra further said there is sufficient fortified rice kernel (FRK) in the country as the production capacity of FRK stands at about 17 lakh tonnes, at present.

About 217 lakh tonnes of fortified rice was available in the central and state godowns as of March 19. Except for Assam and Tamil Nadu, other states are supplying fortified rice through the procurement network, he said.

These two states have been given exemption till June this year for setting up of blending infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the number of rice mills having blending infrastructure has increased from 2690 to 18227 from August 2021 to March this year, he said.

Going forward, major concern is about ensuring quality of FRK. Recently, a Noida-based FRK manufacturer was debarred for supplying substandard quality FRK, he said, and added that a workshop will be conducted with FRK manufacturers across the country to sensitise on quality.

Food safety standards body FSSAI has drafted Standards for FRK, Pre-mix and provided direction to all the stakeholders for operationalization of draft standards with immediate effect.

Phase-I covered beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) and nearly 17.51 lakh tonnes of fortified rice was distributed in the states/union territories.

Based on the success of the first phase, the fortified rice distribution was extended to PDS as part of the second phase in 291 high-burden and aspirational districts.

In the second phase, a total of 134 lakh tonnes of fortified rice was lifted by states and union territories during 2022-23 fiscal, which includes 105 lakh tonnes for PDS and 29 lakh tonnes for ICDS and PM-POSHAN, the Secretary added.