What is the full form of FCI
FCI: Food Corporation of India
FCI stands for Food Corporation of India. It is a government body in India that deals with the purchase, sale and distribution of food grains across the country. Its vision is to ensure food security for citizens of the country. It operates through 5 zonal offices and a head office located at Delhi. As of May 2017, Sh. Yogendra Tripathi is the Chairman and Managing Director of FCI.
Mission
- Procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) to ensure adequate food grains production by the farmers.
- Ensure food grains and sugar availability through appropriate policies and buffer stocks.
- Making food grains accessible at reasonable prices through Public Distribution Shop (PDS) especially for the economically weaker sections of the society.
It was set up on 14 January 1965 under the Food Corporation’s Act 1964 to fulfill the following objectives of the Food Policy.
- Price support operations to safeguard the interests of farmers.
- Uniform distribution of food grains throughout the country through effective public distribution system
- Maintain the required level of stocks of food grains to ensure National Food Security
FCI is believed to be the largest supply chain management in Asia. The key products of this organization are Wheat and Rice. Every year, it purchases around 15-20 percent of India’s total wheat production and around 12-15 percent of India’s total rice production. After the purchase, it supplies the food grains to the stock depots of different states so that ration card holders can buy wheat and rice at a minimal price.
If FCI suffers any loss, the Union government is supposed to reimburse the losses. Since its inception, FCI successfully handled various situations of scarcity and abundance of food grains. It has played a vital role in transforming India from a food deficit country to a self-sufficient country in food.