Food Corporation of India was setup on 14th January 1965 having its first District Office at Thanjavur - rice bowl of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

 - and headquarters at Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

 under the Food Corporations Act 1964  to implement the following objectives of the National Food Policy :

1. Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers
2. Distribution of foodgrains throughout the country for Public Distribution System
   Public Distribution System
   Public Distribution System is an Indian food security system. Established by the Government of India under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution and managed jointly with state governments in India, it distributes subsidised food and non-food items to India's poor...
   
   
3. Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure National Food Security

Statistics

It is the largest corporation in India and probably the largest supply chain management in Asia. It operates through 5 zonal offices and 26 regional offices. Each year, the Food Corporation of India purchases roughly 15-20 per cent of India's wheat output and 12-15 per cent of its rice output. The purchases are made from the farmers at the rates declared by the Govt. of India. This rate is called as MSP (Minimum support Price). There is no limit for procurement in terms of volume, any quantity can be procured by FCI provided the stock satisfies FAQ (Fair Average Quality) specifications with respect to FCI.

Operation

The stocks are transported throughout India and issued to the State Government nominees at the rates declared by the Govt of India for further distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) for the consumption of the ration card holders. (FCI itself does not directly distribute any stock under PDS and its operations end at the exit of the stock from its depots). The difference between the purchase price and sale price, along with internal costs, are reimbursed by the Union Government in the form of Food Subsidy. At present the annual subsidy is around $10 billion. FCI by itself is not a Decision making authority, it does not decide anything about the MSP, Imports or Exports. It just implements the decisions made by the Ministry of Food and Ministry of Agriculture.

External links

• Official Website of FCI
• Ministry of Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution
• Annual Reports 2003-04 to 2007-08