Indians starve as politicians battle to reduce food stocks

“India has all the food it needs,” says a western aid official. “But half of it is currently being eaten by rats.”Financial Times 17 Dec 2002

By Edward Luce

In the 1980s, the European Economic Community gained notoriety as the producer of the world’s largest food mountains. That distinction is now claimed by India – much of its bumper stock is rotting in central government warehouses.

“India has all the food it needs,” says a western aid official. “But half of it is currently being eaten by rats.”

In the last three years, India’s stockpile of rice and wheat has more than tripled to over 60m tonnes, or roughly a quarter of world food stocks. India’s total grain production this year is about 220m tonnes.

The country, which, until less than a generation ago, had to rely on foreign aid to feed its people, is now a regular donor of food stocks to poorer countries. Last month, India gave 1m tonnes of wheat flour to Afghanistan.

And yet, with more than 50 per cent of India’s children classified as underweight, more people suffer from chronic malnutrition in India than in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa put together. Why does India have so much trouble getting its food stocks to the country’s poor?

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