Wheat storage challenge sends govt on ‘space hunt’

The BJP government is desperately looking for air strips, closed flour mills, sugar mills, cold storages, mandi yards, sheds, private go-downs or any other suitable place available to meet the big challenge of safely storing the wheat being procured from farmers by the government agencies. This situation has arisen because the new government in Uttar Pradesh has fixed a target of purchasing a whopping 80 lakh metric ton of wheat during the current season though the state has only half the storage capacity.

“The fear of the wheat rotting or being washed away by rain looms large if the target of purchasing 80 lakh MT wheat is met without creating the additional storage capacity,” said a senior official who did not wish to be named.

“This is why we have written to all the district magistrates to identify in their districts closed sugar mills, flour mills, cold storages, place available on airstrips or any place with cover and plinth to arrange storage of wheat when needed,” he said.

The total storage capacity, including that of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), is only 43 lakh MT in UP. This means any procurement of wheat in excess of the storage capacity will throw a big challenge to the authorities.

“Safe storage of wheat will no doubt be a big problem if the government meets even half the target,” said Sudharkar Mishra, a food and civil supply expert.

In 2011, the then Mayawati government had to abruptly discontinue the government purchase of wheat 15 days prior to the scheduled date because of a storage crunch on the one hand and bumper wheat production and sale on the other, he recalled.

There was no place to store the wheat after 40 lakh MT of it was procured. Reports of farmers’ hard-earned produce lying in the open and getting drenched and rotting outside procurement centres had poured in from all over the state.

Admitting that storing 80 lakh MT wheat was a daunting task, additional commissioner (marketing) AK Singh claimed the department was making all the efforts necessary to meet the challenge.

“Apart from exploring the possibility of storing excess wheat on air strips, closed private flour and sugar mills, mandi yards etc, we are also ensuring that rakes of wheat are dispatched from FCI godowns to wheat deficit states on a daily basis during the procurement season,” he said.

Singh said 8 lakh MT of wheat was also used for distribution under the public distribution system (PDS) every month “So, 24 MT of wheat that will be distributed under the PDS during the procurement of period of three months between April and June will hardly pose any storage problem,” he said.

The new BJP government has fixed the 80 lakh MT wheat purchase target for the current season after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the assembly election rallies, repeatedly took a dig at the low government purchase of wheat in UP despite it being the largest wheat producing state in the country.