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Monday, August 26, 2013

17k tonnes of foodgrain wasted in three years

At least 17,546 tonnes of foodgrain was damaged between 2009-10 and July 2012 in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, an RTI reply has revealed at a time when the Parliament looks poised to pass the food security bill. 
    The revelation exposes how the government is struggling on two counts — safe storage of foodgrain and inadequate storage facilities for food items. On Friday, food processing minister Sharad Pawar had told Parliament that inadequate storage infrastructure resulted in wastage of fruits, grain and vegetables worth Rs 44,000 crore every year. 
The details provided by FCI shows that West Bengal reported higher percentage of damaged rice between 2009-10 and 2011-12 with a loss of around 2,300 tonnes. In Punjab, the loss reduced drastically from 2,223 tonnes in 2009-10 to only 37 tonnes during 2011-12. 


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