Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday admitted in the Lok Sabha that there was a mismatch between procurement and storage of grains.
Earlier, the Opposition parties — NDA, Left, SP and RJD — forced an adjournment for about 10 minutes on the issue of the farmers' plight due to lack of storage for record production of grains.
“There is a mismatch. But we are trying to sort out this issue,” Mr. Mukherjee said, making a statement after the adjournment.
This year, there was a record production of both wheat and rice.
“In earlier days, the government used to procure about 30 to 40 per cent of the total production and the rest of the production was taken care of by the market. But in the last two-three years, because of the high minimum support price (MSP), procurement has become the primary responsibility of the government agencies, whether it is the State governments or it is the Central government.”
Encouraging exports
The government was taking efforts to ease the pressure on godowns by encouraging exports and providing grains to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) beneficiaries as part of wages.
On shortage of jute bags to store food grains, Mr. Mukherjee said the government was trying to import them, even as two lakh tonnes of storage capacity had been added.
While plastic bags had been banned, the government was following international norms for packaging of sugar, wheat and rice stored in biodegradable jute bags, he said.
Earlier, the Opposition parties, including Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, and Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal - United), claimed food grains were rotting and getting destroyed in rains due to lack of storage of wheat and paddy. There was even shortage of bags to store the food materials, Ms. Swaraj said.
