Relaxed norms for growing wheat leaves FCI with 24m tonnes of poor quality stuff

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is stuck with a major problem. It has procured 27 million tonnes of wheat so far this year and most of it was under relaxed norms. The norms had been relaxed by the government in order to help the farmers whose crops were hit in the unseasonal rain and hailstorm.
The good intentions of the government has created a problem for itself because the grains have a shorter shelf life and must be used in 8 to 10 months. Moreover, the grain is shrivelled, broken and lacks lustre.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 29 June 2015.

While there is a need to protect the interest of farmers, the problem for FCI is how to offload the stock. It can distribute a maximum of 20 million tonnes through the PDS or Fair Price shops – the balance has to go in the open market but, who will buy substandard wheat at the official price.
The problem is confounded by the fact that the government has also allowed import of wheat and this wheat sells at cheaper price as compared to the FCI stock.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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