Food Minister Piyush Goyal has asked Food Corporation of India (FCI) to adopt modern technologies in its overall functioning, and reduce the cost of operations by seeking ideas from public and eliminate corruption. He has asked the FCI staff to win the trust of farmers and beneficiaries of the public distribution system.

Speaking virtually on the 60th Foundation Day of FCI, the minister praised the agency for ensuring farmers receive fair prices for their produce and timely distribution of food grains to 81 crore people. The FCI -- the centre’s nodal agency for procurement and distribution of wheat and rice -- was established on January 14, 1965.

He emphasized that the role of FCI is not only to deliver ration, but also to instill confidence in farmers and beneficiaries by bringing transparency, efficiency and accountability.

Outlining three priorities for FCI to concentrate on, Goyal said, “We should win the trust of our farmers as well as our beneficiaries, which are poor and lower-middle-income people. This should be our first priority to win the trust of the people and we should reach them with sensitivity and sincerity.” This can be achieved by carrying out the procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains in a transparent manner with full honesty, he said.

Secondly, FCI should adopt technology and digitisation to improve operational efficiency.

Thirdly, he recommended reducing the expenditure on operations, commending FCI’s collaboration with IIT Delhi for cost-cutting and proposing the organization of a hackathon to generate additional ideas. The overall operational costs could be reduced through route optimisation, mechanised loading and unloading and the adoption of a modern storage system, the minister said.

The minister asserted that FCI operations would be further strengthened and it would live up to its legacy if the corporation followed these three priorities.

Appreciating that FCI has been already making efforts to modernise and digitise its entire operations, he said more needs to be done. “Yeh Dil Maange more,” he quipped.

Urging FCI employees to make it a world-class organisation, he said, “We should stop any wrongdoing in the operations by using technologies and also taking stringent actions.” A corruption-free nation and women’s empowerment are two key elements to make India a developed country, he noted.

“I have full faith that each one of you will not tolerate any wrongdoings. You will raise your voice and report wrongdoings,” Goyal told the audience and urged them to work towards making the systems of procurement and distribution of food grains more efficient, transparent and corruption-free.

He said the government has taken several steps to ensure that people are not affected due to food inflation and there is minimal impact of inflation on the economy.

During the event, the two ministers of state for food -- Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti -- lauded the efforts of FCI in supplying foodgrains to 81 crore people during the COVID pandemic.

Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said that FCI has adopted technologies in a big way and also taken steps to eliminate bad sheep in the system, sending the right signals.

While setting up the FCI, the Centre had laid out the objectives clearly – an effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of farmers, distribution of food grains and maintaining a satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure national food security.

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