Food for thought

Grain banks are worth considering

The problem of storing foodgrains cries out for a solution and by all available indications people in government do not seem any closer to finding one. The centre’s suggestion that the states do their own procurement and distribution has drawn a blank. The states say they do not have the money to get into this. Even if they were to agree to do so, it is at best half a solution. Decentralisation would make the problem appear smaller, but certainly not do away with it. Storing foodgrain efficiently at the state level will be as much of a headache and would not, in all probability, serve the larger social purpose of getting it to the needy. It is in this context that an idea put forward by the eminent agricultural scientist, MS Swaminathan, deserves serious consideration. He has proposed that centralised methods of collection and distribution be replaced with a grain bank movement at the village level. If such an effort were to be undertaken seriously, Swaminathan believes, 25,000 grain banks could be created. The grain banks could have a capacity of 250 tonnes. They could procure grain locally or draw on rural godown scheme.

The advantages would be two-fold. First, low-cost technologies could be used to make this an affordable effort and because the quantities involved would be small they would be manageable in more ways than one. Secondly, grain banks will serve the purpose of targeting the needy. Tribal and drought-prone villages that are difficult to reach would benefit hugely. With the government’s dismal record before us, it is not out of order to consider reducing its role in food management. Recent evidence suggests that village-level efforts at managing fuel, fodder and water have been successful beyond all expectations. This is primarily because the government has been doing such a lousy job that anything else just has to be better. But another reason is that many problems —- and foodgrain collection and storage are among them —- have become so acute that solutions to them have to be found in innovative models of self-governance. The government has to learn when to step aside and as it sits on millions of tonnes of foodgrain, often allowing it to rot, it is long over due that the government took a hard and close look at its role in food management.