Shocked to See Rotting Grain. Its Time to BUILD Silos, India!

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Photo by Guduru Ajay bhargav from Pexels

Its pitiable to see the poor sleeping on an empty stomach. Famished, malnourished and gaunt little kids prance around with hope at the traffic lights  waiting for their next mouthful from a generous donor. Millions in India, depend on begging for a square meal. 

The brutality of hunger is a systematic conduct in a country which sets new records in grain production every other year. As per United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “produce worth $14 billion is damaged annually, even as 194 million Indians go hungry every day”. 

Travelling by road, its common to see warehouses overflowing with grain. First the wheat rots and then the rice rots. Again, the wheat rots and then the rice rots. The cycle goes on forever. Both, the grain waiting to get packed after harvest and that packed in gunny bags lies exposed to the vagaries of nature. Rain, birds and rodents have an open invitation.

The poor clamor for food, but the grain withers in open archaic warehouses with no technology support. Its time India builds modern storage facilities like silos. Silos, follow a scientific method of grain storage, enabling bulk preservation of produce for longer periods. They provide a regulated environment of product and room temperature, relative humidity and CO2 levels. 

As silos are vertical, they take up lesser land to build and hence, are cheaper than building conventional warehouses. Silos also improve earnings of stakeholders across the value chain and ensure national food security.  

As per 2017 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 100 among 119 countries, with 14.5 % of the population undernourished.

Despite umpteen benefits of silos, building these is not on the priority list of successive governments. Land being fertile and bountiful in many parts of the country, the mismatch between record breaking grain production and hungry malnourished people in India is criminal. It’s a paradox to see misery coexisting with plenitude. 

Its time to BUILD silos, India! Period.

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