Steps to stop the rot

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 Steps to stop the rot

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• The dreaded rainy reason in India: We find flooded roads, wet clothes, insects and moulds everywhere! Fungi spring up overnight, in ideal conditions of humidity in the air and heat of the summer. Fungi attack food, and we prevent it at home by putting it in air-tight bags.
• Wrong storage of public foodgrains: Most of the publicly procured foodgrains in India (by govt from farmers) is stored using the cover and plinth method (CAP), in which everything is put together and covered with a tarpaulin, assuming it'd be safe!
• Scale of the operation: We store 30.52 million tonnes of rice, wheat, maize, gram, sorghum etc. in godowns of Food Corporation of India.
• What does America do? They build grain silos, that are dry, to prevent fungal and insect attacks. It started with agriculture spreading to midwest, and today they have silos and a railway system to reach there. Their permanent storage capacity is equal to annual production.
• How many silos in India? Only 4 - one each in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hapur-Ghaziabad (this one is of 500 tonnes).
• Rest of it? Shoddy storage leads to at least 10% wastage of harvested grain, of which 6% (18 lakh tonnes) is lost in storage.
• Exports are different: Basmati for exports is kept in modern PPP-mode grain silos in Punjab, with 50000 tonne capacity. That is not for domestic consumption.
• Illnesses from eating mouldy grain: WHO reports indicate that Mycotoxins found in mouldy grain/foods are dangerous for human health, and produce aflatoxins and other toxins, causing a variety of diseases.
• Government is aware: There are norms to prevent purchase of mouldy grain from farmers, but no studies or norms on mould infections in grains stored in CAP method.
• Why is the government not building proper food storage silos? When materials and technological knowhow are available, why not? Public money is used to procure foodgrains, but the govt. stores it wrongly, and risks wasting 30 million tonnes of it.
• Everyone is affected: No Indian will be immune from the dangers as we all consume food, including government servants!   CONCEPT
• The wrong storage method of procured grains leads to huge, avoidable wastage and disease incidence, on a regular basis.

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