Grain Rotting

India will be unable to consume or export enough wheat and rice to rein in a record stockpile after another bumper harvest, a failure that means crops risk rotting in fields instead of being sold on world markets to cash in on higher prices.

The monsoon in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district has just picked up. It's been raining incessantly for the past few days. At a government godown, a few black sheets of cheap plastic lazily cover tons of rice bags. The stench is unbearable. And apart for a few stray cows and buffalos that seem to be having a field day gorging into the grains, no one...

India is grappling with storage problems due to bumper harvests in recent years.

In Punjab, tonnes of grain continue to lie in the open and rot due to lack of storage facilities. Even after the Supreme Court order, there has been no change and the fresh harvest continues to rot even as thousands starve.Rains have set in but in Khamanu, about 75,000 kg of grain is lying outside the godowns, which is enough to feed 1,000 families...

In a country where a considerable number of families still sleep hungry, food grain rotting due to lack of storage space is possibly the worst phenomenon still left unchecked.Despite the Supreme Court ruling on grain distribution to the poor, the grain rotting episodes have turned into a saga. Now, Mandhal village in Nagpur has seen more than four ...

Even as the Supreme Court cracked its whip on foodgrain rotting issue, the grain rotting trail doesn't seem to end. Now, the Southern state of Karnataka too has joined the ill-famed league.With just a careless look around the godown, one can spot the worms in the moist rice.Thousands of metric tonnes of rice, rotting at godowns in Shimoga, the home...

Acting on the directive of the Supreme Court, government on Thursday decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of food grains to states for distribution among the poor but it will not be free."As an interim ad-hoc measure, pending a final decision on the issue, the government is releasing an additional quantity of 2.5 million tonnes of wheat a...

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) on food will meet today to discuss ways ofimplementing the Supreme Court order to distribute foodgrain 'free' to the poor instead of letting it rot."The EGOM on food is meeting tomorrow," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of an insurance summit organised by Assocham in Mumbai o...

The wheat lies in the sun. Lakhs of bags of it. The stamp on the jute bags says "2010-2011." This batch of wheat is produced from a crop that's just three months old.  It's rotting away. "This is the first time wheat has been stored here in the open. Earlier they stored it in a pucca plinth. Now there are more than 1.5 lakh bags out here,...

If Sharad Pawar were confused earlier about what the Supreme Court wants when it comes to food grain, there's no room for confusion now. Making it clear who's calling the shots, the Supreme Court told the Additional Solicitor General, "Tell your minister that free food distribution is our order - not a suggestion - by us."Earlier this month, aggrav...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has responded to Supreme Court's recommendations of distributing grains to the poor for free instead of letting them rot. "It's not possible to implement the Supreme Court's order," the minister said.  On August 13, the apex court had asked the Centre to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the hun...

Across the country, there have been reports of grain going to waste while hundreds of thousands continue to starve. The latest one comes from the state of Madhya Pradesh where a whopping 67 percent of the people live below the poverty line.On February 5, The Food Corporation of India had sent 1,100 quintals of wheat to be distributed in Khandwa's r...

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to consider free distribution of food grains to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns."Give it to the hungry poor instead of it (grains) going down the drain," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma told Additional Solicitor Gener...

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre to ensure free distribution of food grains to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns. "Give it to the hungry poor instead of it (grains) going down the drain," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said in an o...

When hunger stalks, several stories of desperation are born. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajesh Gond,  a tribal man,  was arrested for stealing wheat from his neighbour's house so that he could feed his family. Rajesh stole a seventy-kilo sack of wheat worth one thousand rupees from his neighbour's house. For a tribal villager like him whose ...

India will be unable to consume or export enough wheat and rice to rein in a record stockpile after another bumper harvest, a failure that means crops risk rotting in fields instead of being sold on world markets to cash in on higher prices.

The monsoon in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district has just picked up. It's been raining incessantly for the past few days. At a government godown, a few black sheets of cheap plastic lazily cover tons of rice bags. The stench is unbearable. And apart for a few stray cows and buffalos that seem to be having a field day gorging into the grains, no one...

India is grappling with storage problems due to bumper harvests in recent years.

In Punjab, tonnes of grain continue to lie in the open and rot due to lack of storage facilities. Even after the Supreme Court order, there has been no change and the fresh harvest continues to rot even as thousands starve.Rains have set in but in Khamanu, about 75,000 kg of grain is lying outside the godowns, which is enough to feed 1,000 families...

In a country where a considerable number of families still sleep hungry, food grain rotting due to lack of storage space is possibly the worst phenomenon still left unchecked.Despite the Supreme Court ruling on grain distribution to the poor, the grain rotting episodes have turned into a saga. Now, Mandhal village in Nagpur has seen more than four ...

Even as the Supreme Court cracked its whip on foodgrain rotting issue, the grain rotting trail doesn't seem to end. Now, the Southern state of Karnataka too has joined the ill-famed league.With just a careless look around the godown, one can spot the worms in the moist rice.Thousands of metric tonnes of rice, rotting at godowns in Shimoga, the home...

Acting on the directive of the Supreme Court, government on Thursday decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of food grains to states for distribution among the poor but it will not be free."As an interim ad-hoc measure, pending a final decision on the issue, the government is releasing an additional quantity of 2.5 million tonnes of wheat a...

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) on food will meet today to discuss ways ofimplementing the Supreme Court order to distribute foodgrain 'free' to the poor instead of letting it rot."The EGOM on food is meeting tomorrow," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of an insurance summit organised by Assocham in Mumbai o...

The wheat lies in the sun. Lakhs of bags of it. The stamp on the jute bags says "2010-2011." This batch of wheat is produced from a crop that's just three months old.  It's rotting away. "This is the first time wheat has been stored here in the open. Earlier they stored it in a pucca plinth. Now there are more than 1.5 lakh bags out here,...

If Sharad Pawar were confused earlier about what the Supreme Court wants when it comes to food grain, there's no room for confusion now. Making it clear who's calling the shots, the Supreme Court told the Additional Solicitor General, "Tell your minister that free food distribution is our order - not a suggestion - by us."Earlier this month, aggrav...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has responded to Supreme Court's recommendations of distributing grains to the poor for free instead of letting them rot. "It's not possible to implement the Supreme Court's order," the minister said.  On August 13, the apex court had asked the Centre to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the hun...

Across the country, there have been reports of grain going to waste while hundreds of thousands continue to starve. The latest one comes from the state of Madhya Pradesh where a whopping 67 percent of the people live below the poverty line.On February 5, The Food Corporation of India had sent 1,100 quintals of wheat to be distributed in Khandwa's r...

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to consider free distribution of food grains to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns."Give it to the hungry poor instead of it (grains) going down the drain," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma told Additional Solicitor Gener...

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre to ensure free distribution of food grains to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns. "Give it to the hungry poor instead of it (grains) going down the drain," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said in an o...

When hunger stalks, several stories of desperation are born. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajesh Gond,  a tribal man,  was arrested for stealing wheat from his neighbour's house so that he could feed his family. Rajesh stole a seventy-kilo sack of wheat worth one thousand rupees from his neighbour's house. For a tribal villager like him whose ...