The National Advisory Council (NAC) may be talking of April 2011 rollout of the food security Bill, but lack of storage capacity of foodgrain could thwart the programme before it gets launched.
Seized of the matter, the agriculture ministry has submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for forming a Rs 4,000-crore special purpose vehicle (SPV) for enhancing the country?s food grain storage capacity.
As per the ministry?s proposal, the SPV would be on the public-private partnership mode and it would be run by the Central Warehousing Corporation as the nodal agency. ?The money can be raised from public and private sources and the investment is urgently needed in this sector,? said a source in the ministry.
The proposal has also been submitted to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The report is the result of minister of state for agriculture KV Thomas? recent trip to China where food grain storage facilities were visited by the Indian delegation.
?The Chinese system of storing paddy stalks was especially impressive, with the right temperature and atmospheric controls,? said the source. While PMO does not deny the need for adding to existing storage capacity for food grains and the fact that galloping food inflation would be greatly reduced by good storage and timely release of grains, the logic of an SPV is learned to has have received a cold reception.
?There is no need for an SPV as there is enough private investment in the country, which would be happily deployed in this sector. After all, even now, the FCI rents a majority of its warehouses from private parties. To build storage capacity, FCI needs to come out with a set of norms and conditions, and any private party satisfying that condition would get business from the government,? said an official in the PMO.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had said that India needs to create at least 140 million tonne worth of storage capacity in order to meet the needs of the food security Bill.