Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 3.6
Public procurement and distribution as a percentage of production,
1967/68 to 2001/02
Period
a
Procurement
Stocks
PDS offtake
Wheat
1967/68
4.04
7.98
55.93
1973/74
20.10
19.30
26.07
1976/77
15.42
22.45
22.25
1982/83
17.13
21.65
19.21
1985/86
20.45
37.26
16.92
1988/89
16.46
27.04
17.90
1995/96
19.70
27.10
8.53
2001/02
24.60
49.70
7.20
Rice
1967/68
8.99
1.62
10.87
1973/74
7.69
5.62
8.02
1976/77
11.17
6.33
8.14
1982/83
13.14
13.27
12.99
1985/86
15.07
10.06
11.97
1988/89
13.27
13.42
14.79
1995/96
15.50
18.70
11.03
2001/02
21.55
23.88
10.26
SOURCE
: Dev (2003).
a
Triennium ending.
have not only increased in numbers but also in political and lobbying powers.
This increasing clout is reflected in FCI employees being able to negotiate higher
salaries and wages than what they would have earned in the private sector. Ac-
cording to a recent study, the wage rates of FCI's regular employees are four to
five times higher than market rates; casual workers' daily wages are double the
wage rates of rural Indian laborers (Chand 2002).
In addition to FCI's staff and employees, Indian food policy has also cre-
ated a large group of stakeholders, including about a half-million ration shops,
219 million ration cards, and more than 6,000 state marketing and regulatory
agencies (including village market boards, or
mandi
boards) directly involved
in public intervention programs (Table 3.7). In 1977 India had about 246,000
fair-price shops, whose numbers reached about 476,000 in 2004. The number
of ration cards has increased from 107,000 to 219,000 during the same period.
In Punjab there are five state agencies that procure foodgrain on behalf of FCI.
In 2001 total procurement by these agencies accounted for 70.1 percent of
