Wheat stocks at 7-year high point to complex food logistics problems – The Hindu BusinessLine

Wheat stocks with the central pool touched a seven-year high of 35 million tonnes as on December 1 (BusinessLine, December 18), once again raising questions on how the complex exercise of food procurement, storage and distribution should be conducted. This spurt in stocks is on account of ‘open-ended’ procurement in recent years, as a result of which the Centre has been procuring a third of the wheat output, against about 25 per cent some years back. With wheat output expected to be above 105 million tonnes in 2019-20, an additional 35 million tonnes could enter the FCI godowns over the next six months. A sizeable stock will need to be evacuated before April. The FCI will need to drop its rates for open market sales, besides pushing more stocks through the National Food Security Act route, under which wheat is sold at ₹2 a kg. The loss so incurred should be seen against the savings in storage and reduced crop damage. A shift to maize and pulses should be encouraged through higher MSP, so that micro-nutrient deficiencies are addre