FCI Ramps up Food Grain Supplies across the Country during Lockdown due to COVID-19 Outbreak

Amid the nationwide lockdown, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has ensured uninterrupted supply of wheat and rice throughout the country during this lockdown period. FCI is fully prepared to meet not only the food grain requirement under National Food Security Act (NFSA) @5 KG/Month/Beneficiary but also any additional demand including supply of 5Kg/Person for next 3 months to 81.35 Crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. As on 31.03.2020, FCI has 56.75 Million MT (MMT) of Food Grains (30.7 MMT Rice and 26.06 MMT Wheat).

Pronami Chetia Updated 2 April, 2020 12:34 PM IST

Amid the nationwide lockdown, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has ensured uninterrupted supply of wheat and rice throughout the country during this lockdown period. FCI is fully prepared to meet not only the food grain requirement under National Food Security Act (NFSA) @5 KG/Month/Beneficiary but also any additional demand including the supply of 5Kg/Person for next 3 months to 81.35 Crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. As on 31.03.2020, FCI has 56.75 Million MT (MMT) of Food Grains (30.7 MMT Rice and 26.06 MMT Wheat).

Even in this challenging operational environment, FCI is able to meet the increasing demand of food grains by gearing up the pace of supply of wheat and rice throughout the country mostly by Rail. A total of 53 Rakes are being loaded today i.e. 01.04.2020 carrying about 1.48 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) food grain stock. Since the day of lockdown i.e. 24.03.2020 FCI has moved 352 rakes carrying an approximate quantity of 9.86 LMT.

Moreover, FCI is conducting e-auction under the Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) for providing Wheat to the empanelled roller flour mills/State Government to ease the supply constraint in the market. In the last e-auction held on 31.03.2020, bids for 1.44 LMT wheat have been received.

In view of the outbreak of COVID-19, apart from regular e-auction, District Magistrates/Collectors have been authorized to lift directly from FCI depots at OMSS reserve price to cater to the needs of Roller Flour Mills and other wheat product manufactures. Till now, 79027 MT Wheat has been allotted in the following states through this route:

Sr. No.	State	Quantity (in MT)
i	Uttar Pradesh	35675
ii	Bihar	22870
iii	Himachal Pradesh	11500
iv	Haryana	4190
v	Punjab	2975
vi	Goa	1100
vii	Uttarakhand	375
viii	Rajasthan	342

Further, e-auction for rice is also conducted. In the last e-auction on 31.03.2020, bids for 77000 MT rice have been received from the state of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, J&K etc.

In addition, considering the emergent situation, States have been allowed to take rice under OMSS @ Rs. 22.50/kg without participating in E-auction to meet any requirement over and above the NFSA allotment and additional allocation done under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana Allocation. So far, 93387 Metric Tonnes (MT) Rice has been allotted to the following 6 states as per their requests: