Antyodaya Anna Yojana

The Government launched the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) for the poorest of the poor on 25 December 2000. Under this scheme, 25 kg of foodgrain was made available to each eligible family at highly subsidised rates of Rs two per kg for wheat and Rs three per kg for rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 kg to 35 kg from 1 April 2002. There are about one crore Antyodaya families in the country. The identification of these families is carried out by the State Government/UT Administration from among the BPL families in each State/UT. The Government has expanded the Antyodaya Anna Yojana to cover an additional 50 lakh BPL families from amongst the following priority groups: (i) Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support; (ii) Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence; (iii) All primitive tribal households.

As announced in the Interim Budget for 2004-05, the AAY will be further expanded by including another 50 lakh BPL families, thus increasing its coverage from 1.5 crore to two crore BPL families.

As against the allocation of 45.55 lakh tonnes of foodgrains during    2003-04, a quantity of 38.24 lakh tonnes has been lifted. This represents 83.95 per cent offtake.

Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic)

Besides meeting the requirement of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other foodgrains based welfare schemes of the Government and maintaining a buffer stock, foodgrains from the Central Pool are also released to the open market to augment the availability especially in the deficit regions and during the lean season of supply so as to have a moderating effect on the open market prices. The sale of foodgrains from the Central Pool in the open market is also helpful in reducing the inventory of foodgrains with the FCI and other procuring agencies and hence saving carrying costs.

Open Market Sale of Wheat: Wheat is sold in the open market under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) (OMSS(D)) in which the commodity is made available to buyers throughout the country at pre-fixed prices. The prices of wheat under the scheme is presently determined by the Government on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee (HLC) of the FCI which is an Inter-Departmental body comprising of representatives from the FCI and other concerned Ministries/Departments of the Government of India. In the present price structure, prices have been fixed on State/FCI region-wise and crop year-wise. Variation in prices from one State/Region to another is mainly due to freight charges from the producing regions of Punjab and Haryana. The prices of wheat of different crop years also vary since prices of older stocks have been fixed at lower levels than those of the newer stocks in order to facilitate off-take of the older stocks. Bulk consumers like Roller Flour Mills, etc., are the main beneficiaries of this scheme. A quantity of 9.23 lakh MT of rice was sold in the open market during the year 2003-04.

Open Market Sale of Rice: Old stocks of rice and the stocks procured under the relaxed specifications (URS) which are not acceptable to the State Governments under the TPDS and other welfare schemes, are being sold through tenders from time to time. These tenders are finalised and rates are approved by the HLC of the FCI. A quantity of 4.05 lakh MT of rice was sold in the open market during the year 2003-04.

International Cooperation

India is a member of the following International Organizations: (i) International Grain Council (IGC); (ii) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN including its Committee on World Food Security (WFS); (iii) International Sugar Organisation (ISO) s.

India has been included in the category of Exporting Member in July 2003 in the International Grains Council. The Department of Food and Public Distribution also participated in the 18th session of IGC, which was held in London in December 2003. The Government has decided to allocate foodgrains at BPL rates for the development schemes of WFP-assisted projects in India. India is also a Member of the SAARC Food Security Reserve Board. Out of the minimum reserve of foodgrains of two lakh MT to be maintained by the SAARC countries. India’s share is 1.53 lakh MT. India participated in the 25th session of Council of International Sugar Organisation, which was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in April 2004.

Save Grain Campaign (SGC)

The scheme is implemented through a network of 17 SGC offices in close collaboration with the State Governments, NGOs, Corporate Houses, etc. The main objective of the scheme is to transfer the technical know-how developed by the Indian Grain Storage Management and Research Institute (IGMRI) to the farmers for minimising the post-harvest losses in foodgrains. Under the scheme an assistance for purchasing the metal bins and other inputs at the rate of Rs 10,000 per village is provided to the farmers.

During 2003-04, 38,475 farmers were trained in 1,592 stipendiary/non-stipendiary training programmes, 14,805 metal bins distributed, 18,387 non-metallic storage structures improved/constructed and 434 nucleus villages developed.