Sufficient food grain in godowns: Food Corporation of India

Amid increasing Covid-19 cases, the country has sufficient food grain in its godowns, said officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the central agency which procures and distributes grains.

The FCI has a stock of more than 77 million tonnes of food grain including unmilled rice, 3.6 times the mandatory stock requirement for April.

“With fresh procurement of wheat in full swing and purchase of rice still going on, we will get more stocks. The stock is enough to meet any requirement of food grain in the country,” said a senior food ministry official.

He said the stocks are more than that a year ago, when the government had announced free food grain distribution scheme for 810 million poor ration card holders at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY).