Date: 04/05/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger.

Relevance: GS-3: Inclusive Growth, Issues of Buffer Stocks and Food Security, Climate Change.

Key Phrases: Food Corporation of India, Sustainable Food Value Chain, Circular Economy, Family Farming, FAO, Industry 4.0 Technology, Sustainable Development Goals, State of Food Security and Nutrition in World 2022, Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates 2021, Climate Change, Gender Balance Promotion.

Context:

• Foodgrains lost in storage and transit is a major cause for concern.
  • Apart from weakening food security, it hurts the environment through greenhouse gas emissions.
• By 2050, the world population is estimated to grow to 9.7 billion, so food security and sustainability are imperative to overcome hunger and reduce the impact of climate change.
  • To fulfill the nutritional demands of the world’s population and ensure food security by 2050, food output will have to increase by 70 percent.

Key Highlights:

• The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in a 2019 report, estimates that for every kg of food lost in the supply chain in Central and South Asian regions, about 2.2 kg CO2 equivalent is emitted, adding to the problem of global warming and climate change which are a major threat to agricultural output across the world.

Procurement of Food Grains:

• In India, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the nodal Central agency for ensuring food security of the nation, by managing the supply chain of wheat and rice.
• FCI, along with allied State government agencies, procures wheat and rice and small quantities of coarse grains at Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and directly credits the money into farmers’ accounts.
  • The payment for the entire purchase comes from the Union Government and forms the central pool stock.
• The average share of wheat and rice purchased by the FCI in the last 10 years has been about 31 per cent and 38 per cent of the country's production, respectively.
  • Due to the expansion of procurement and the government’s commitment to farmers for open-ended purchase of wheat and rice, the share has risen to as high as 48.38 per cent for rice and 40.23 per cent for wheat in 2021-22.
• The central pool stock is distributed among 813 million beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) across the nation through more than 5 lakh fair price shops.
• While foodgrains procured by State agencies are distributed within the State to meet their requirements, the surplus is taken over by FCI for storage and distribution in deficit States through their civil supplies agencies.
  • In the process, FCI transports about 66 per cent of rice procured in 10 surplus States and 82 percent of wheat procured in three surplus States.

Strengthening of Food Grain System:

• FCI has helped save about 4.7 million tonnes (mt) of food in the last decade, by gradually reducing its operational losses in the supply chain of the central pool of wheat and rice stocks.
  • These savings come from the reduction of two main sources of operational losses - storage and transit.
• Storage Loss:
  • The storage loss for rice, which is prone to losing moisture during long-term storage, was about 0.52 per cent in 2012-13.
  • However, with constantly improving operational practices and effective monitoring, it has gradually come down to 0.12 per cent in 2022-23.
  • In the case of wheat, which is hygroscopic in nature and can gain or lose moisture more easily depending on environmental conditions, the overall storage gain has risen from 0.04 per cent to 0.49 percent during the same period.
  • Thus, FCI has helped save 17.90 lakh tonnes of wheat and 18.15 lakh tonnes of rice during the last 10 years.
    • Financially, at current value, the savings to the central exchequer amount to ₹10,300 crore and environmentally it has enabled to cut CO2 emission by 7.93 mt.
• Transit Loss:
  • Transit loss has also declined substantially from 0.47 percent in 2012-13 to 0.22 percent (of quantity dispatched) in 2022-23 due to improved operations, standardized procedure and small innovations.
  • FCI has saved about 10.75 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice, valued at about ₹3,500 crore, from transit loss.
  • The reduction in transit loss is more commendable as FCI had to double its distribution operations due to Covid and transported about 100 mt additional foodgrains across the country for PMGKY (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana), to mitigate the adverse impact among vulnerable citizens.

How was it possible?

• The considerable improvement in storage and transit losses during the last decade has been possible due to various strategies adopted by FCI.
  • These include inspection of warehouses by senior officers, augmenting covered storage capacity to avoid open storage of wheat, revamped security system with CCTV to ensure timely and periodic checks, improvisation of loading and unloading process, and keeping spilled grains safe for collection by laying plastic sheets in wagons.
• Also, coordination with the Railways for good quality wagons, use of electronic seals to keep the wagons safe from en route pilferage, and making loading and unloading officials more accountable have helped reduce transit losses.

Way Forward:

• In a six-year-long study, ICAR-CIPHET concluded that there have been negligible losses due to pests, rodents or birds in FCI godowns.
  • A small amount of loss has been attributed to godown operations and a more significant amount to loss in moisture, mainly for rice.
  • The results of the study have enabled FCI to arrive at a realistic norm for storage loss due to loss/gain of moisture and storage operations.
• Sustainable processing phase and improved food delivery methods should be promoted using new advanced technologies of Industry 4.0 such as AI, RFID, Cloud computing, Machine learning, and Blockchain technology, etc.
  • These can be advantageous in providing better information exchange to decrease food loss and waste in the processing phases of food supply chains.
• Incorporating sustainable practices into food preparation and processing.
  • Governments could do more to reduce trade barriers for nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses.
• A more productive, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable food system helps to end hunger, reach food security, and achieve the SDGs.

Conclusion:

• The efforts of FCI during the last decade to reduce food loss by more than half will not only help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 target (to cut food waste by half and also to significantly reduce food loss by 2030) earlier but also serve as an inspiration to other large global food systems for ensuring food sustainability.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. “FCI has helped save about 4.7 million tonne (mt) of food in the last decade, by gradually reducing its operational losses in the supply chain of the central pool of wheat and rice stocks.” Examine the statement. (250 Words).