In news- Punjab’s state procurement agencies (SPAs) are now seeking a waiver of ‘storage gain’, after the Centre relaxed the Fair and Average Quality (FAQ) norms for wheat procurement this season.
What is ‘storage gain’
- Wheat, considered a ‘living grain’, tends to gain some weight during storage.
- This is known as ‘storage gain’ and it mostly happens due to absorption of moisture.
- There are three parts of the grain — bran (outer layer rich in fibre), germ (inner layer rich in nutrients) and endosperm (bulk of the kernel which contains minerals and vitamins) and the moisture is mostly absorbed by the endosperm.
- State procurement agencies, which purchase and store wheat at their facilities, are required to give one kg wheat extra per quintal to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to compensate for storage gain.
- While 20% of wheat, procured by the FCI and the SPAs, is moved immediately after procurement, it is usually on the remaining 80%, which is moved out after July 1 every year, that storage gain has to be accounted for due to longer storage duration.
- This year state agencies want a waiver as the grain procured this year is both shrivelled and broken and therefore will not gain much weight.
Source: IE
