The government has decided that all the wheat procured from this year's new crop in April will only be stored in the open as there are virtually no godowns available. The FCI expects to procure at least 20m tonnes wheat in the forth-coming season. The problem of where to store new grain has been vexing the government as it is already stocking 60m tonnes across the country. The government had decided to use open storage pr CAP(cover and plinth) system for the new wheat crop coming in April because they would like to save the covered godowns for the new rice crop. This is because wheat is able to withstand open storage without loss in quality, while rice cannot. The cost of open plinth storage is an average 45 paise per square foot per month. To take care of the current stocking problem, the FCI is hiring in open plinths, and to stock the 20m tonnes inn excess of their capacity, they would need 4,000acres of open storage. |
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