Kerala: Grain rots despite storage space Kochi: Even as tonnes of foodgrain was found rotting in the open air owing to lack of storage space, a government agency formed exclusively for the storage of agricultural produce is now forced to rent out its godowns to store everything from medical supplies to liquor. The Food Corporation of India has never approached the State Warehousing Corporation to store grains!

The Kerala State Warehousing Corporation, came into existence in 1959. According to the Kerala government website, the idea behind the whole warehousing scheme is to provide scientific storage space to agricultural produce and to arrange easy credit and holding power to the farmers to enable them to get better prices for their produce. Ideally, what an agency like the FCI would need, one would think.

Though the corporation has as many as 59 warehouses across the state with a capacity of 1,97,000 tonnes, none of it has been used for the storage of grains of the FCI. The Food and Civil Supplies Corporation has never approached us with their terms and conditions or even put up a notice in newspapers.

The FCI used to store grains and pesticides in our warehouses till about 1985. During the 1970s even the imported wheat was stored in our warehouses. Later, the FCI became lax with the payments and they began building their own godowns. In recent years, the FCI has never approached us for storage of its grains. Since we had to pay our employees we have rented it 
11:03 AM, Jul 26, 2012

Consumer Affairs Min on Ganganagar's rotting grain report New Delhi: On 6th June 2012 CNN-IBN had done a special story on damage to food grains due to rains in Rajasthan's Ganganagar district. The report says almost 40,000 metric tonnes of food grains lying in the open have been left neglected by Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials. You can read and watch the full report here. CNN-IBN received a letter from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food &...  
02:21 PM, Jun 08, 2012

Rotting grain: when will this national shame end?

on Talking Point, Rajdeep Sardesai asks, 'Rotting grain: when will this national shame end?' ...
11:36 PM, May 12, 2011

Grains rot in open: is it criminal negligence?

Flood waters submerged Haryana's grain warehouses in Sirsa where wheat worth Rs 15 crore was reduced to waste. ...
11:55 PM, Jul 23, 2010

Govt apathy behind rotting grains in Sirsa Flood waters submerged one of Haryana's biggest warehouses where 1 lakh quintals of wheat was reduced to waste. ...  
11:52 PM, Jul 23, 2010