by Santosh Digal

The archbishop of Bhopal slams the waste of surplus food due to poor storage management. More than 90 per cent of reserves set aside in the last few months can now only be used as fertiliser.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – In a country like India with one of the highest levels of poverty, 90 per cent of food grain stock was wasted because of the failure of Union authorities to properly store it during the recent monsoon season. Instead of being placed indoors in properly managed warehouses, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) left bags of grain outside at the mercy of the weather. Recent monsoon rains did the rest. Now, most of it will be sold off at bargain prices as manure or animal feed.

Mgr Leo Cornelio, archbishop of Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) is outraged by what has happened. “Wasting food and food grains by anyone should not be tolerated. They are God-given resources for human need. We have to see the greater common good to share food grains and food with the poor and needy,” he said.

India ranks 67 out of 88 nations listed on this year’s Global Hunger Index, a survey conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

In the past few decades, India has invested heavily in agriculture production. Consequently, it has the capacity of producing mountains of food grains. However, Indian authorities have never made food storing a priority. So, millions of tonnes of food grain have been left to rot in all kinds of weather.

According to Archbishop Cornelio, the government should activate its Public Distribution System to provide at least 50 kilograms of grain per family, plus 5.25 kilograms of pulses and 2.8 kilograms of edible oils to any household asking for assistance.

“Everyone has right to food,” the prelate said. “No one should go hungry”

• india
• grain
• food
• waste
• storage
• stock
• reserves
• monsoon
• rains
• leo
• cornelio