Grain Storage Facilitating the Human Survival

Grains such as cereals, pulses and oilseeds are natural packages of solar energy in the form of nutrients needed by humans for their daily food to survive, live and perform. Production of grains is seasonal and it, therefore, need to be stored between the two harvests to meet the human requirements of food, feed and seed. The total production of grains in India during 2011–12 is estimated to be 270 million tonnes. On an average, 70% of the grains are stored by farmers and local traders where storage losses are more as compared to that in storage facilities of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) but, the FCI and other organized sectors handle and manage only about 30% of the total grains, especially for the targeted public distribution at a subsidized cost. India is already running a food subsidy programme of about Rs 67,000 crores through a large public distribution system (PDS) and fair price shops (FPS) and now the new National Food Security Bill 2011, (NFSB-2011), likely to start soon in 2012, will cover about 75% of rural and 50% of urban identified households and it will take the subsidy amount to about Rs 95,000 crores. The NFSB-2011 will necessitate for 75–80 million tonnes of storage capacity for grains. India, as in 2011, has already created storage facilities for about 65 million tonnes and another 15 Mt storage capacity is being constructed. This is in line with grain storage requirements. The present need is to strengthen and/or develop scientific godowns/silos/facilities in the production catchment where farmers can store grains after harvest and sell it later and in the meantime farmers may be provided loan or he/she can hedge/trade his/her stored grains against the registered warehouse receipt. It would avoid distress sale by farmers immediately after the harvest and also minimize the storage losses which in turn would enhance per capita food availability. It is in the interest of the people and that of the country.