Food Corpn ropes in Ncdex arm for quality audits

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has introduced third-party foodgrain quality audit and certification to reduce its storage losses and eliminate complaints regarding supply of substandard rice and wheat.

The quality analysis will be conducted by the National Collateral Management Services (NCMSL), a company floated by the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange of India (Ncdex). The FCI has already signed a memorandum of under standing with the Ncdex for this purpose.

This audit will be besides the arrangement the FCI already has for quality testing of its stocks by some state agricultural universities and non-governmental organisations.

"The Ncdex and its associated company has been involved for this purpose because they have experience in this field and qualified staff to undertake this job", FCI managing director and chairman V K Malhotra said.

He said NCMSL would be allowed to use the spare capacity of existing quality testing laboratories of the FCI and other facilities in a commercial arrangement.

To begin with, this experiment would be tried out on a pilot project basis in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

According to a NCMSL source, its quality audit would ensure that foodgrains not meeting the laid down quality norms were not procured at all.

Besides, it would prevent the dispatch of sub-standard foodgrains from food-surplus states where these were procured to consumption centres in food-deficient states. The stocks identified as substandard would be disposed of at the earliest to curb further damage.

Third-party quality audit by a neutral agency (not involved in foodgrain procurement and distribution) would, thus, help cut down the FCI's financial losses arising out of procurement of grains not conforming to the specifications.

The stocks having high moisture content and high percentage of weevilled (insect damaged) grains tend to spoil early during storage. The quality audit would help curtail these losses.

In the case of rice, samples for quality testing would be drawn at the grain receiving points. In the case of older stocks, the samples would be drawn from the warehouses, these sources indicated.

Since foodgrains are perishable in nature and their chemical constitution keeps changing with the passage of time, the validity of the quality certification would be for a limited period. For this purpose, it is presumed that not much change, other than reduction in moisture level, will occur in about three months.

THIRD EYE

FC I introduced this to reduce its storage losses and eliminate complaints regarding supply of substandard rice and wheat

This audit will be besides the arrangement the FCI already has for quality testing of its stocks by some state agricultural universities and non-governmental organisations