Food Corporation of India

Statistics

It is one of the largest corporations in India and probably the largest supply chain management in Asia (Second in world ) . It operates through 5 Zonal offices and 24 Regional offices. Each year, the Food Corporation of India purchases roughly 15 to 20 per cent of India's wheat output and 12 to 15 per cent of its rice output. The purchases are made from the farmers at the rates declared by the Govt. of India. This rate is called as MSP (Minimum Support Price). There is no limit for procurement in terms of volume, any quantity can be procured by FCI(Food Corporation of India) provided the stock satisfies FAQ (Fair Average Quality) specifications with respect to FCI.

Organizational structure

Food Corporation of India operates through it Field Offices/District Offices which are headed by an Assistant general manager, designated as Area Manager. Assistant general manager (QC) is also posted who is looking after the QC work. Under Area Manager control there are Managers to deal with each and every section viz., sales, contracts,sl-tl, movement, establishment, quality control, operational accounts etc., who consolidate the field level operations and through the area managers' authorisation, they transmit the necessary information and periodical statements to regional offices of their respective regions. Regional offices are headed by a general manager, who is in most of the cases from Indian Revenue Service, Indian Administrative Service /All India Services under deputation. Under his control Deputy General Managers who are FCI's officers co-ordinate with daily operations through the Assistant General Managers who were posted in various sections to oversee the functions of district offices units of their particular section. All these officers appraise the general manager periodically on various issues pertaining to district offices of that particular region. FCI has been divided into 5 zones viz. North, South, East, West & North-East with a Zonal Office in each zone. Each zone is further divided into regions with a regional office in one region. All the Regional Offices are under the control of Zonal Offices which are headed by an Executive Director, who in most of the cases is from Indian Administrative Service or Indian Revenue Service under deputation. Under his control three or more than three General Managers co-ordinate with all Regional Offices of their particular zone through subordinate officers like Deputy General Managers and Assistant General Managers dealing with their allotted operational sections in their zone. All the Zonal Offices are under the control of Headquarters, located at New Delhi, which is headed by chairman and managing director, who is an Indian Administrative Officer of Secretary rank on Central Deputation. Headquarters instruct, communicate, consolidate and refine the voluminous information required for the streamlined execution of day-to-day operations and coordinates with Ministry of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and Food Secretary and various sister corporations like Central Warehousing Corporation, Indian Railways in formulating food policy or amending the existing policy to suit the emerging challenges in managing Food Security scenario of the nation.

Operations

The Food Corporation of India procures Rice and Wheat from farmers through many routes like Paddy purchase centres/Mill Levy/Custom Milling and stores them in depots.FCI maintains many types of depots like Food Storage Depots and Buffer Storage Complexes and Private Equity Godowns and also implemented latest storage methods of silo storage facilities which are located at hapur in UttarPradesh and Elavur in Tamil Nadu.The stocks are transported throughout India and issued to the State Government nominees at the rates declared by the Government of India for further distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) for the consumption of the ration card holders. (FCI itself does not directly distribute any stock under PDS, and its operations end at the exit of the stock from its depots). The difference between the purchase price and sale price, along with internal costs, are reimbursed by the Union Government in the form of food subsidy. At present the annual subsidy is around $10 billion. FCI by itself is not a decision-making authority; it does not decide anything about the MSP, imports or exports. It just implements the decisions made by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Agriculture.

Food Corporation of India recently ventured into procurement of pulses in various regions from the crop year 2015–16 and pulses are procured at market rate which is a sharp deviation from its traditional Minimum Support Price based procurement system.

In the year 2014, Government of India setup a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble Member of Parliament and former Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Shri Shanthakumar to recommend viable solutions regarding restructuring and reorienting the role of Food Corporation of India and the committee submitted its report to the government and many of the committee recommendations are under various stages of implementation.