Answer:

The Buffer norms are the minimum food grains the Centre should have in the Central pool at the beginning of each quarter to meet requirement of public distribution system and other welfare measures. Buffer stock constitutes an important parameter for ensuring food security in the country. It is well known that a modicum of self- sufficiency in food is desirable which immediately means that the state will have the responsibility of maintaining a certain amount of food stocks. Further, it is argued that in a big country like ours, it is politically risky to rely entirely on private traders and international trade to iron out excessive price fluctuation and international experiences in the past have shown that relying entirely on international market comes with its own strategic costs.

Maintaining buffer stocks helps in achieving multiple objectives i.e. they are required to feed TPDS and other welfare schemes; ensure food security during the periods when production is short of normal demand during bad agricultural years and stabilize prices during period of production shortfall through open market sales.

The Food Corporation of India, is the nodal agency for procurement, storage and release of food grains in India. It was setup under the Food Corporation Act 1964. The objectives of FCI are:

♤ Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers

♤ Distribution of food grains throughout the country for public distribution system

♤ Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure National Food Security.

Buffer stocks have been under frequent attacks in recent times. The level of stocks is said to be too high in relation to the buffer stock norms which is causing huge cost in terms of storage, interest on value of produce, and wastage, tying up huge resources

that could have been put to better use. It is argued that price stabilization can be better achieved through trade rather than stocks and the former is found to be much cheaper than latter. Further, it is also argued that buffer stocks for absorbing shocks due to production fluctuation were justified when India did not have enough foreign exchange reserve to maintain excessive stocks held by public agencies.

What needs to be done is to vary our procurement, taking in more when the weather is good, supply plentiful and with low prices, when the weather is bad and prices are high. Further, the efficacy of the policy of offloading of grains is enormously dependent on the size of packages to be offloaded in the open market.

Inspired by the sight of food grain going waste, it is often made out to be that our central problem is that of poor food grain storage. Though there is no doubt regarding improving our storage facilities, it is important to be clear that this will not lower the price of food. To achieve that we need to redesign the mechanics of how we acquire and release food on the market.