Haryana has expressed serious concern over the slow movement of foodgrain stock and the severe paucity of storage space ahead of the wheat procurement season starting from April.
Left with a “swelling” stock of wheat and rice in the wake of inadequate storage space, the Haryana Government has asked the Centre to accelerate the shifting of old food grain stock out of the State and quicken the process of creating new scientific godowns for the smooth procurement of crop.
“Haryana has urged the Union Government to direct the Food Corporation of India to move more quantity of food grain to other States and speed up grain transportation. Moreover, new scientific storage space should also be built in the State,” official sources said here.
Sensing that the State would be left with the highest ever food grain stock levels after buying wheat in the rabi marketing season 2012-13, the State has pointed out that the procurement agencies would not have “makeshift arrangements” for storage of the current as well as the new crop in April, sources added.
Haryana, which contributes about 30 per cent of wheat to the Central kitty, is saddled with over 80 lakh tonnes of food grain stock, including 66.79 lakh tonnes of wheat, 12.54 lakh tonnes of rice and 90,000 tonnes of bajra, against the covered storage capacity of 48.55 lakh tonnes in the State.
Indicative of the insufficient storage space, a whopping 68 per cent (45.42 lakh tonne) of wheat stock is stored in the open and the rest in covered godowns in Haryana. Rice is always stored in a covered space.
Haryana is targeting to procure 70 lakh tonnes of wheat in the rabi marketing season 2012-13 in comparison to lifting of a record purchase of 69.28 lakh tonnes in the last season.
Like in Punjab, stock movement from Haryana through the rail network is also going on at snail’s pace, with the State demanding transportation of at least 13 lakh tonnes of food grain, comprising 10 lakh tonnes of wheat and 3 lakh tonnes of rice per month.
Stating that the current movement of crop was “extremely low”, the Haryana Government has pointed out that at present, the average monthly movement stands at 2.80 lakh tonne of wheat and 1.30 lakh tonne of rice. Last season, the average monthly movement of wheat was 5.22 lakh tonne.
The State has also emphasised on the creation of new scientific storage capacities to preserve food grain beyond a reasonable period. Haryana has sought the creation of ‘silos’ with storage capacity of 10 lakh tonne.
FCI has identified a storage gap of about 40 lakh tonnes in the State.
Keywords: food grain storage, Haryana, storage space, slow movement
