RTI reveals around 2 lakh MT of food grains damaged in last 8 years
15 Feb, 2014An application was filed with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of the food grains wastage in the country.
The reply to the application shows that in the past eight years huge quantity of food grains worth crores of rupees has been damaged. The RTI reply states that during the period from 2005 to March, 2013 a total of 1,94,502 metric tonnes of food grain were wasted in India due to various reasons. The data provided in the reply shows that in 2005-06 around 95,000 MT of food grains were wasted which gradually reduced in successive years. The damaged stock stood at 25,353 MT in 2006-07 and 4,426 MT in 2007-08. Though, the wastage increased in 2008-09 to 20,114 MT, it again reduced in 2012-13 registering the lowest damage (3,148 MT).
The FCI, in the reply, also provided the commodity wise and region-wise details of the wastage. As per the reply, Rice constituted the bulk of damaged food stock accounting to 84% of total damage, followed by Wheat accounting for 14% of damaged food grains.
Region-wise, Punjab witnessed the maximum damage to the food grains. With 98,200 MT of food grains wastage, it accounted to almost 50% of total wastage in the country. Punjab was followed by Maharashtra (20,067 MT of damaged stock).