Food grain storage -Where is the quality oversight?

If government orders can set things right, every thing in this country should have worked as they ought to have!Alas, in the scheme of things in the agenda of babus who rule this country, "ordering" is the only duty they have to perform and whether they are obeyed or implemented is none of their business!. Latest one hears is about an "order" by the Goan government to the PDS players in the state to obtain license from Delhi for grain storage to "ensure" quality of grains supplied by PDS to the card holders. What is not clear is how getting a license will improve the quality unless there is a ground level infrastructure to pick up samples, assess quality in a well equipped laboratory and haul up those who indulge in distributing unfit grains to the consumers. Here is a take on this tall order from Goan babus to the state PDS dealers. 

"Goa civil supplies department has stated that all its godowns across the state have to obtain a food safety license to ensure that quality of grains is maintained. The department has also asked for a monthly report from joint mamlatdars about damaged, inferior or infested grains found in godowns from where the grains are supplied to fair price shops through the public distribution system. The directions are mentioned in a circular issued by director of civil supplies Vikas Gaunekar.The joint mamlatdars will also have to educate fair price shop owners about maintaining quality of grains and to take measures to prevent pest infestation. There are more than a dozen godowns in the 12 talukas."

One wonders whether there has been any case in the last 2-3 decades of any food inspector daring to confront PDS system and hauling any ration shop owners or the warehouse owners (FCI or State agencies) for violating food standards? India is a country where public agencies are holy cows which cannot be touched by quality control agencies, be it food grains or the milk. If these QC agencies had done their job efficiently without fear, the quality complaints so rampant from consumers about unfit grains being supplied would not have reached Himalayan dimensions to day. Even private players manufacturing and selling sub-standard foods are rarely hauled up with annual conviction hardly in the range of 700-1000 in a country with a population of 1.2 billion! The truth is that food standards agencies in almost all states are grossly understaffed with archaic testing infrastructure though there are loud proclamations from Delhi that crores and crores of rupees have been "budgeted". Is this some sense of pessimism expressed here? Of course past experience has taught the citizens in this country to be pessimistic about every thing government says from time to time! 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

LOWERING THE GRAIN QUALITY BAR-POLITICS OF PROCUREMENT!

Politics of expediency can play havoc in a country like India where people are known to be more politically conscious than their counterparts in many other countries. Growers, be in Punjab or in Andhra Pradesh are supposed to have same rights and expectations and no responsible government can show discrimination dealing with the farmers from different regions. How ever the procurement policy last year was modified to favor the Punjab farmers through dilution of food grain standards, Why there were no protests from other states is not clear but the preeminence of Punjab in contributing to FCI stock might have tempted GOI to appease the farmers there.

"The government agreed to buy rice that contains 28 percent damaged grains from some districts in Punjab, more than the 25 percent broken-rice limit that's a national benchmark, said the official, who didn't want to be identified as the information is not public yet. Growers in Andhra Pradesh will get less than the floor price for grain that's more than 25 percent damaged, he said. The two states together supplied 52 percent of the record 33.68 million tons purchased in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. The government has bought 26.57 million tons of the grain from farmers since purchases began in October, less than 27.35 million tons procured in the year-ago period, according to the Food Corp. of India. A bigger stockpile may help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government avert imports and meet an election promise of ensuring food security for the poor. Singh's Congress party promised to give each poor family 25 kilograms of rice or wheat at 3 rupees a kilogram every month".

Lower quality of rice grains which are consumed predominantly in the South, because of the above quality dilution would be felt during the current year and with the Public Distribution System in disarray, GOI is bound face the heat from the beneficiaries once distribution starts from the storage goddowns of FCI. Imagine the fate of the poor beneficiaries, who had to be content with a rice supply out of which 25% is already bad under normal conditions, being forced to accept still more inferior grain because of the new quality maneuvering by GOI. Added to this is the sharp decline in quality during unsound storage and distribution by FCI, some times after 2-3 years of procurement.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com