| Under the agreement, NCDEX and NCMSL will utilise the godown capacity and laboratory facilities available with the FCI. |
| Besides, they will participate in the foodgrain procurement and sale operations. |
| Disclosing this to the Business Standard, FCI chairman and managing director VK Malhotra said FCI had already acquired ISO 9000-2001 certification for its management practices and quality maintenance standards for its products. |
| FCI handles foodgrains, procuring around 38 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes of rice and wheat worth over Rs 30,000 crore every year. |
| Roughly, between 20 and 25 per cent of the nation's foodgrains output is bought by FCI and the state governments for the central grain pool. |
| Besides supplying grains to the states for the public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes, FCI sells grain to the trade and industry through its open market sale scheme. |
| "Henceforth, the NCDEX will also be selling foodgrains on behalf of the FCI under the open market sale scheme," Malhotra said. |
| FCI had reduced its staff strength by nearly 9000 through a voluntary retirement scheme recently. |
| Besides, it had initiated a computerisation programme to link all its depots with headquarters. |
| To streamline the procedures for purchase of gunny bags, grain preservation chemicals, grain moisture meters and other necessary items, a new system of centralised rate contracts had been introduced. |
| Under this, the regional offices of FCI would not have to issue fresh tenders for every purchase, Malhotra said. |
| FCI has a covered foodgrains storage capacity of around 12.8 million tonnes. |
| This includes 5.44 million tonnes of FCI's own capacity built in different parts of the country, and 7.36 million tonnes of hired godown capacity. Besides, it has an additional storage capacity of about 28 million tonnes of foodgrains in the open under CAP (covered and plinth) storage. |
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