Companies like ITC, Adani Group and Cargill only manage storage for the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and do not deal with farmers. Another myth linked to the new farm bill gets busted.
Many social media handles spreading fake news against reputed India corporates with regard to the new farm bill came under fire. The Delhi Police registered FIRs against various social media handles for instigating violence by spreading fake news.
Fringe groups with political agendas are misusing the farmers’ protest to attack select corporates by spreading baseless narratives. Such narratives have led to reputation damage and adversely impacted the stakeholders’ sentiments of India Inc.
A fake news busted recently claimed that only corporate giants are being benefitted from farm bill. Adani Group and Cargill only manage storage for the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and do not deal with farmers.
Adani Group, the port-to-energy conglomerate, has no role even in deciding the volume of storage, as it is only a service/infrastructure provider for FCI. In reality, FCI purchases food grains from farmers and stores them in silos constructed by public-private partnership. The private players only receive the amount for building and storing the food grains, whereas, the ownership of the commodity, its marketing and distribution rights belong to the Food Corporation of India.
Additionally, private rail lines are being constructed as a part of these tenders in order to facilitate the movement of grains from silo units to distribution centers across the nation. Many private investors have bagged competitive tender from FCI. The government body had partnered with them to establish high tech silos which will be equipped with the latest fumigation and preservation methods to procure food grains for a period of two to four years. Depending upon the need, grains will be dispatched in bulk form through special trains across the nation.
In the year 2000, under the National Policy on Bulk Handling, Storage and Transportation, the Government of India announced to build Silo Grain Storage infrastructure.
In 2003, the government invited global tenders for the project and it was awarded to the Adani Group in 2005. It was commissioned for 20 years to the company in 2007 and it had invested Rs 700 crore in the project. The company has already been serving it from the last 13 years.
Much before the farm bill, private firms like Adani Group have been working closely with FCI in the field, and all such projects come under the guidelines issued by the government.