Exportable grain mountain

With its godowns bursting at the seams, the Government has done the right thing by initiating moves for export of grain from the Food Corporation of India's (FCI) stocks. The economic rationale for it is sound. At around 72 million tonnes (mt), the inventory levels projected for July 1 would be more than twice India's normative buffer and strategic reserve requirements of 32 mt at the start of the new agriculture season. The annual ‘carrying' cost of this extra 40 mt, as per FCI's own figure of Rs 5 a kg, would work out to roughly Rs 20,000 crore.

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