Nov 4, 2020
The government has asked Food Corporation of India (FCI) to tie up with rice mills for increasing supply of fortified rice via ration shops and other welfare schemes. Currently, out of the 15 states identified for ‘Central scheme on fortified rice and its distribution via a public distribution system (PDS)’, five states are implementing it in one district each. In fact, the operational readiness of FCI would help in successfully scaling up procurement and supply of fortified rice in a phased manner from 2021-2022 onwards.
The way to scale up the central scheme was discussed in a meeting held between NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey and other stakeholders like Tata Trust, World Food Programme, Nutrition International, among others, the Food Ministry said in a statement. It was felt that “there is a need to scale up the supply of Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK), whose availability currently is at a meager quantity of 15,000 tons per annum,” it said.
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh have started distribution of fortified rice in their respective identified districts.
It was observed that covering 112 aspirational districts for PDS, ICDS, and MDM scheme would mean a requirement of nearly 130 lakh tons of fortified rice for which FRK supply capacity in the country needs to go up to nearly 1.3 lakh tons.
If the entire rice supplied through PDS, which comes to 350 lakh tons, is to be fortified, there has to be an uninterrupted supply pipeline of FRK from the industry of about 3.5 lakh tons, and there are nearly 28,000 rice mills in the country which need to be equipped with blending machines for mixing FRK with normal rice.
Food Minister Piyush Goyal had also reviewed the scheme twice recently and laid emphasis on scaling up supply of fortified rice in the country.
He had also directed FCI to come with a comprehensive plan for the distribution of fortified rice under the ICDS and MDM scheme from 2021-2022 as well as in 112 specially identified aspirational districts of the country.
The pilot scheme is being implemented with a budget outlay of Rs 174.6 crore for a period of three years beginning 2019-20.