Agriculture Related Bodies
National Dairy Development Board
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), a statutory body, was created in 1965 to fulfil the desire of the then Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, to extend the success of the Kaira Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul) to other parts of India. It was founded by Dr. Verghese Kurien.
Initially registered as a society under the Societies Act 1860, the NDDB was later merged with the erstwhile Indian Dairy Corporation, a company formed and registered under the Companies Act 1956 by an Act of Parliament, the NDDB Act 1987, with effect from October, 1987. The new body corporate was declared an institution of national importance by the act.
The main office is located in Anand, Gujarat with regional offices throughout the country. NDDB’s subsidiaries includes Mother Dairy, Delhi.
The board of directors of the National Dairy Development Board consists of the chairman; one director from amongst the officials of the central government; two directors from amongst the chairmen of the state co-operative dairy federations; whole-time directors, not more than three in number, from amongst the executives of the highest grade of the National Dairy Development Board; and one director, being an expert, from outside the NDDB.
NDDB implements cooperative develop-ment and governance programmes across the country. It supports the development of dairy cooperatives by providing them financial assistance and technical expertise. The functions of the NDDB are to promote, plan and organise programmes for the purposes of development of dairy and other agriculture- based and allied industries on an intensive and nation–wide basis and to render assistance in the implementation of such programmes. It is the responsibility of the board to adopt the cooperative strategy in a more effective manner on an intensive and nation-wide basis.
Food Corporation of India
The Food Corporation of India (FCI), a statutory body, was set up under the Food Corporation Act 1964, in order to fulfil objectives of the food policy; effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers; distribution of foodgrains throughout the country for public distribution system; and maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure national food security.
The board of directors of the corporation consists of a chairman; three directors to represent respectively the ministries of the central government dealing with food, finance, and co-operation; the managing director of the Central Warehousing Corporation ex-officio; a managing director; and six other directors.
The objectives of FDI are: to provide farmers remunerative prices; to make food grains available at reasonable prices, particularly to vulnerable section of the society; to maintain buffer stocks as measure of food security; and to intervene in market for price stabilisation.
The corporation is the main agency responsible for execution of food policies of the Government of India. The functions of FCI primarily relate to the purchase, storage, movement, distribution and sale of foodgrains on behalf of the Government of India. It is also engaged in the handling, storage and distribution of sugar in north eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir and the two union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands.
Restructuring of FCI
A high level committee (HLC) on re-structuring of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was set up by the Government of India in August 2014 which submitted its report on January 19, 2015. The findings of the committee would help government in rationalising expenditure, including subsidies, which includes the cost in implementing National Food Security Act, 2013.
The terms of reference of the HLC, amongst others, included examination of the administrative, functional and financial structure of the FCI and feasibility of unbundling it to improve operational efficiency and financial management; suggest measures for overall improvement in management of foodgrains; and reorient its role in minimum support price (MSP) operations, distribution of foodgrains, and food security system of India.
Major findings of the committee are as follows.
(i) Only 6 per cent of the farmers have benefitted from selling rice and wheat directly to the FCI.
(ii) A majority of the farmers were not even aware of the FCI’s existence and its procurement activities. Illustratively, only 25 per cent of paddy farmers and 35 per cent of wheat farmers were aware of it.
(iii) Leakages in PDS in 2011 were 46.7 per cent, and in some states as high as 90 per cent, confirming worst fears of economists and analysts. The key factors that could be causing losses are multiple handling, poor quality wagons, en route pilferages, and inadequate security at rail points.
(iv) Actual average stocks of foodgrains at 73 million metric tonne (MMT) during 2011-12 to 2013-14 were about 40 MMT above the stipulated buffer stock. The cost of these stocks would translate into Rs 1 lakh crore of carrying buffer, in addition to food inflation of 10 per cent, and nearly 1.9 per cent households reporting inadequate food availability.
In order to ensure reorientation of the PDS to effectively serve economically vulnerable consumers, stablise grain market, and procurement benefits reaching a large number of formers the HLC made following key recommendations.
- The FCI should move out from states like Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh which have created infrastructure for procurement to other states like Assam, Bihar and UP where farmers suffer from distress sales.
- The Government of India (GoI) should explore the possibility of switching to cash compensation without physically handling grains.
- The GoI should gradually introduce cash transfers under targeted public distribution system, starting with large cities with one million-plus population.
- The FCI should outsource its stocking operations to the private sector.
- The GoI needs to revisit its procurement and MSP policy, which is mainly focussed on rice and wheat, despite 23 items including pulses and oilseeds under MSP.
- The FCI should introduce a proactive liquidation policy to offload stocks in the market whenever in excess of stipulated buffer stocks.
- To address the inadequacy of food, the GoI should consider involvement of urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions to identify and target genuinely hungry people, rather than 80 crore people under NFSA.
- The FCI could consider revising its lists of items under the MSP to stabilise food markets.
The HLC also examined the policy of low output and input prices followed by the government of India and illustratively explained in detail the malady in pursuing such logic. This policy of ensuring low output prices entails providing inputs at low rates through substantial subsidies. Further, irrigation is subsidised at state level, in varying degrees in terms of subsidised power, low canal irrigation charges and no charge on capital expenditure. The key problem with low input costs is that scarce resources get overused, especially when targeting the poor. Clear illustrations are sharply falling water table because of free electricity and deteriorating soil quality due to excess use of subsidised fertiliser in Punjab.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a statutory body, was established under the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 to handle food related issues. The FSSAI was created for laying down science-based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
The authority consists of a chairman and twenty-two members of which one-third are to be women.
The authority performs the following functions.
- Framing regulations to lay down the standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying appropriate system of enforcing various standards.
- Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in certification of food safety management system for food businesses.
- Laying down procedure and guidelines for accreditation of laboratories and notification of the accredited laboratories.
- Providing scientific advice and technical support to central government and state governments in the matters of framing the policy and rules in areas which have a direct or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition.
- Collecting and collating data regarding food consumption, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contaminants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foods products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system.
- Creating an information network across the country so that the public, consumers, panchayats, etc., receive rapid, reliable and objective information about food safety and issues of concern.
- Providing training programmes for persons who are involved or intend to get involved in food businesses.
- Contributing to the development of international technical standards for food, sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards.
- Promoting general awareness about food safety and food standards.