C.2. Transport
Ensuring accessibility to food in a country of India’s size is a herculean task. The food grains are transported from the surplus States to the deficit States.
FCI undertakes movement of food grains in order to:
- Evacuate stocks from surplus regions
- Meet the requirements of deficit regions for NFSA/TPDS and Other Schemes
- Create buffer stocks in deficit regions
- The food grain surplus is mainly confined to the Northern States, transportation involves long distance transportation throughout the country.
- Stocks procured in the markets and purchase centers are first collected in the nearest depot and from there dispatched to the recipient States within a limited time.
- About 40 million tonnes of food grains are transported by FCI across the country in a year.
- Movement of food grains is undertaken by rails, road and Waterways. More than 85% of the movement of stocks is undertaken by rail.
- Inter-State movement by road is mainly undertaken in those parts of the country which are not connected by rail.
- Food grains stocks are also moved by ocean vesselsto Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands and through coastal shipping and riverine movement to Kerala/Agartala (Tripura).
i. Transit Losses
Transit losses during distribution processes remain a significant concern. Loss of foodgrains belonging to Food Corporation of India (FCI) during transportation or transit annually cost nearly Rs 300 crore.
Distance covered during transport of grains for the market is a key variable explaining total loss. The variable is not significant for Punjab and MP due to higher market density, whereas the variable is significant for Bihar. A one unit increase in distance from mandi increases paddy loss per hecatre by 1.4 percent in Bihar. A survey shows that in Bihar, 61.50 percent used tractor as mode of transport whereas the share is almost 100 percent in other two states.
Transit losses currently stand at 0.22 percent as of 2021-22. Though it has declined substantially from 0.47 per cent in 2012-13 due to improved operations, standardised procedure and small innovations. FCI has saved about 10.75 lt of wheat and rice, valued at about ₹3,500 crore, from transit loss
