Food Minister gives nod to export of wheat, rice
Food Minister K V Thomas has taken charge in January and since then he has resisted the export of foodgrain but he said on Wednesday that he support the export of wheat and rice to some extent as there is bumper production in the country.
Referring to proposed food security law, Thomas said that he is against the export of foodgrain. Food Minister has changed his idea on exporting foodgrain and jiggle to export some quantity of wheat and rice. After watching the records of food stocks maintained by government which shows production of over 65.5 million, tonnes of foodgrains as against less than 45 million, tonnes of covered wheat storage in the country. This shows that the left over stock is stored under covered and plinth (CAP) facilities.
Almost 18 million tonnes of freshly procured wheat has been stored in CAP facilities and 2 million tonnes of wheat is stored in an unscientific manner in Punjab.
Food Secretary B C Gupta said there is no doubt that there are some quantities stored under non-scientific storage facilities, he mentioned that about 18.77 lakh tones of wheat in Punjab is neither under cover nor under CAP facilities. CAP is a facility in which foodgrains are stored under scientific conditions.
He also mentioned that ministry is working hard to transfer this stock from Punjab to proper facilities as soon as possible and is hoping to complete the process by the end of July.
Although foodgrains production have extended the estimates but still farm ministry had suggested that 2mt of wheat and one million tonne of rice to be exported.
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