India Has Enough Food To Feed Its Poor If There Is A Long Lockdown

India has enough food in stock to feed its poor for at least a year and a half. This reserve of grains is likely to increase after the country saw a bumper crop and has locked itself down to keep the CO.VID-19 outbreak in check.

In an interview, Food Corp’s chairman D.V. Prasad said that there would be no shortage of food in India. Each year, the country requires around 50 tons to 60 tons for its various welfare programs for the poor and by April, India’s warehouses across the nation will have a total of 100 million tons. In 2019-2020, India will likely reaches the record of 292 million tons grains.

Prasad ensured that there was no need to worry about the stock of rice and wheat. However, a problem persists. Many states do not have the capacity to hold enough grains to meet their needs for several months.

India, like many other nations in the world, is working to contain the spread of COVID-19. As fear grows, top food companies in America is facing a challenge of meeting the demand of food. Russia is seeing a big demand on pasta and cereals.

There are worries that prices of essential commodities will be hiked as consumers rushed to stock food and other merchandise. States might need to purchase 30 million tons of grains from the federal government, whose reserve will increase after the new crop of wheat arrives in April.

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Twitter that India had no constraint of cash for this particular purpose.

The farm ministry announced that India’s grain output would increase from 285.2 million last year. Both rice and wheat production will reach a new high of 117.47 million and 106.21 million tons respectively.

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