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The public distribution system (PDS) plays a significant role in combating hunger and malnutrition in India. The PDS in India helps enhance food security and combat hunger and malnutrition. The Food Corporation of India is a Central Government entity responsible for procuring food grains directly from the farmers and then distributing them through the PDS throughout India.
What are the goals of the FCI?
The FCI was founded in 1965 under the Food Corporation Act to pursue the following food policy goals:
- Providing farmers with remunerative prices.
- To ensure food grain supply to the public at a cheap price, especially the vulnerable sections.
- Maintaining a buffer stock for national food security.
The National Food Security Act, 2013
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 was a major step toward improving India’s PDS. The NFSA represents a transition from a traditional welfare strategy to one based on acknowledging the human right to food and proper nutrition.
Due to the broad scope of the NSFA, a lot of existing food security measures were incorporated into legislation. The PDS is a pillar of government policy addressing nutrition and food security. With the NFSA, it became more efficient and targeted.
However, the PDS is beset with inefficiencies that limit its ability to distribute food to people in need properly. The adoption of the NFSA in 2013, which provided the legislative underpinning for the PDS, was one good response. The PDS helps to provide subsidised food grains to millions of below poverty line (BPL) families. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the BPL families also received free basic food grains.
Problem faced during food grain distribution
There are a lot of problems in the PDS procurement and distribution.
Most of the time, the farmers face a huge financial crisis due to rising input costs. The government provides a minimum support price (MSP) on selected crops, which helps the farmers sustain themselves. Yet, they feel that the MSP is not up to the mark.
Storing the food grains in the FCI warehouses is another perennial issue as a huge amount of food grains rot in these warehouses due to poor storage conditions.
Transport is also a major problem for the FCI. It is hard for the farmers to reach far off places to sell their crops. Similarly, it becomes hard for the FCI to send the food grains to different places that are really far.
Food grain procurement
The government’s procurement strategy for food grains has wide aims, including providing MSP to farmers and supplying food grains to the poorer sections at reasonable costs. In collaboration with the States, FCI and several agencies operate a significant number of procurement centres at various mandis and critical places to ease foodgrain procurement. The number of centres and their locations is determined by the State governments based on a variety of criteria in order to enhance MSP operations.
The PDS
The PDS emerged as a system of scarcity management through the distribution of foodgrains at low costs. PDS has been a significant aspect of the government’s programme for managing the country’s food economy over the years.
How does the PDS work?
Under the PDS, the FCI buys crops from the farmers from the village or block-level mandis (markets) in collaboration with its buying agents or States. Then the food grain is stored in the warehouses and transported to different places. The FCI sends the foodgrains from the warehouses and stores for final distribution through the fair price shops called “ration shops”. These shops are the final point of distribution of the foodgrain.
Conclusion
The Government of India owns the Food Corporation of India, which plays a pivotal role in procuring and distributing foodgrain in India under the public distribution system. The PDS ensures food availability for the vulnerable sections and also keeps a check on massive food price inflation. The FCI helps the States implement the NFSA 2013 and maintains a buffer stock for any contingency.
