With a storage crunch looming large because of surplus foodgrain stocks at the central pool, the Food Ministry has asked the state governments to lift rice and wheat under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for three months in advance and distribute amongst the beneficiaries immediately.
In a communication to the states, the ministry has stated that the states must lift and distribute rice and wheat under the PMGKAY or free ration schemes in advance for the period of April – June in view of upcoming procurement season in the country and consequent bottlenecks of storage faced by states and union territories.
“The distribution of the food-grains lifted in advance for the month of April–June, 2026 to be completed immediately after lifting the stock of food-grains,” according to the communication by the food ministry to states.
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As on Thursday, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has rice (37.25 MT) and wheat (23.48 MT) stock of 60.73 million tonne (MT), 185% more than the buffer required for 21.04 MT for April 1.
However the current grain stock excludes over 39 MT of rice yet to be received from the millers.
Creating Space
Under PMGKAY, the government distributes 5 kg of rice or wheat monthly to over 800 million beneficiaries. Sources said that through advance distributions of foograins, space could be created prior to the commencement of wheat procurement for 2026-27 marketing season (April-June), where agencies are aiming to buy over 30 MT of wheat from the farmers over the next two months.
FCI currently has a cumulative covered storage capacity of 47. MT out of which only 14.7.2 MT facility is owned by the corporation while the rest of the 32.34 MT facility is hired from the private sector. In addition 38.19 MT covered capacity is available with the state agencies for storage of central pool foodgrain stock across the country. “This is utilized to meet procurement requirements, buffer norms, and operational needs under the Public Distribution System, the food ministry recently stated in the parliament,” food ministry stated in the parliament recently.
Managing Surplus Stocks
Due to open ended policy on procurement of foodgrain at minimum support price (MSP), the FCI and state agencies purchase around 52 MT to 53 MT of rice from farmers while the corporation supplies around 36 to 38 MT of rice under the free ration scheme leading to rising stocks.
Central pool rice stocks are rising despite, the government aiming to offload a record 10 MT of rice in the open market in the current fiscal through OMSS, liberal allocations to states, supplies for ethanol manufacturing, and the Bharat Rice initiatives
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In FY25, the FCI had allocated 4.63 MT of rice to the state’s social welfare scheme (1.12 MT), open market sale scheme (1.96 MT) and ethanol manufacturing (2.3 MT). In 2023-24, only 1.54 MT of rice was offloaded through various schemes to bulk buyers.
TOPICSFCIFCI wheatThis article was first uploaded on March twelve, twenty twenty-six, at forty-three minutes past nine in the night.