Foodgrain storage continues to be a challenge in state

Lack of storage capacity may not allow farmers, especially the smaller ones, to benefit from the increased MSP, feel experts

LUCKNOW: Though the Central government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of various crops, encouraging farmers to sell their produce to government agencies, storing foodgrains safely continues to be a challenge in UP with the state facing a severe storage crunch.

The record wheat purchase again this year brought to the fore the state’s vulnerability with regard to the storage, with reports of wheat lying in open at various procurement centres pouring in. The government agencies are said to have been at their wit’s end as where to store around 52 lakh MTs of wheat purchased from farmers.

Commissioner, food and civil supplies, Alok Kumar said, “Storing wheat safely was no doubt a challenge due to storage crunch. We had to store 12 lakh MT of wheat in make-shift godowns hired from different government departments.”

He said some wheat had to be kept in the open too. “But now all the wheat has been shifted to godowns,” he claimed.

Sources said the state’s food storage capacity was less than 50 lakh MT against the peak requirement of 70 lakh MT. The annual PDS and midday meal requirement itself is 60 lakh MT.

“Lack of storage capacity is one of the reasons why the state government does not make aggressive purchase of wheat and paddy unlike states of Punjab, Haryana, MP and Rajasthan, the four states that together purchase two-third of the total wheat produced in the county while UP’s share is marginal despite its producing more than 30% of the country’s wheat,” said sources.

Lack of storage capacity, according to experts, may not allow farmers to be benefitted from the increased MSP. “Mere increase in MSP will not benefit farmers, especially the smaller ones, unless the government ensures that all the produce that farmers are willing to sell is purchased by it. Currently not even one-third of the market surplus of wheat and paddy is purchased in UP,” economist AK Singh said.

He said since the government did not have adequate storage capacity, the question of its purchasing wheat and paddy beyond existing permissible

storage limit did not arise. “The government must seriously work to create additional storage capacity and plug in other deficiencies in its procurement policy if it wants the Centre’s decision on hiking MSP actually benefits farmers,” he suggested.

Sources said efforts to set up silos in public-private-partnership (PPP) were initiated six years ago to deal with the problem of storage crunch. “But not a single silo has been set up in the state since due to bureaucratic hurdles,” sources in the government said.