The quality of rice being sold at Re1 per kg to consumers in the BPL category through the public distribution system in Tamil Nadu is poor and is unfit for consumption, top agricultural scientists and biotechnologists have warned.
The quality of rice being sold at Re1 per kg to consumers in the BPL category through the public distribution system in Tamil Nadu is poor and is unfit for consumption, top agricultural scientists and biotechnologists have warned.
“Paddy and rice should be stored under a particular temperature. Presence of moisture in the atmosphere could spoil the rice over a period of time,” MS Swaminathan, eminent agricultural scientist and member of the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi, told DNA.
Last year Supreme Court had directed the Union government to distribute rice and wheat, rotting in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, for free.
“The FCI does not have proper facilities to store the crop. They just spray the grains with Malathion, a chemical and fumigate with aluminium sulphide. We do not know the long-term effects of these chemicals on humans. The sooner we give up this practice, the better,” the scientist said.
AJA Ranjith Singh, biotechnologist with Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tamil Nadu, warned long-term consumption of this variety of rice could lead to many diseases, including cancer. He said the rice distributed under these schemes in Tamil Nadu has been found to be contaminated with fungus. “Paddy procured by FCI is stored in the open. It is allowed to rot in the open,” he said.
Fecal material of rodents and birds contaminate the rice. “When this rice is boiled, it emits aflotosin, a toxin. Consumption of aflotosinated rice could lead to malignancy of the stomach, tumor and cancer,” he said.
The government should set up a National Grid of Modern Grain Storages across the country. “Fifty such silos, each with a capacity of one million tones could store fifty million tones of grain. It will not cost more than Rs10,000 crore,” Swaminathan suggested. The absence of storage facilities force the farmers to go for distress sale.
Pejawar Murari, former secretary to the president and the first-ever secretary of the country’s ministry of food processing, said immediate disbandment of the public distribution system and supply of rice at subsidised rates should be immediately stopped.
“We have been asking the government to issue free food coupons to the people instead of giving them sub-standard rice. Let the consumer get the freedom to go to any shop and buy the food of his/her choice,” Murari said.
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