25 Pct Population Hungry in India Even With Excess Grain Stock

Bangalore: India has constantly been in global surveys reporting the drastic malnutrition rate in the country. However, a recent record on the food grain stock in the country has presented a different picture. It shows that the government of India is pilling up one of the world’s largest stockpiles of food grains amounting to around 667 lakh tonnes, as of January 2013.  This is much higher than the government's rule of stocking up buffer stock of 200 lakh tonnes and a strategic reserve of 50 lakh tonnes, which must be maintained in a year,  reported Subodh Varma for TNN.

Apart from the 667 lakh tonnes of food grain stocked up last year, what comes as a surprise is that the monthly stock of food grains averaged over 671 lakh tonnes for the entire term. It raised to the highest in June 2012 with 802 lakh tonnes in stock.  Only in 2008 the food grain reserve was estimated to be 192 lakh tonnes, which was below the expected level. Since then it has consistently increased from about 250 percent to the current level. It has reached a level where the current stocks are more than two and a half times above the set benchmark.                       

Unfortunately even with the high stock of food grains stacked up in the country, there are a large number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. It currently huants a quarter of the population with malnutriton concerns, which includes over 200 million people as estimated by various international studies. India ranked 65^th among 79 countries in the report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute reflecting a seriously high hunger and malnutrition level last year. India ranked below Niger, Nepal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh with 43 percent children suffering with malnutrition.

Also Read: India Scores Low on Hunger Index