Food Corporation of India (FCI) has upgraded with smart tech. The government’s rationing department is now using Artificial Intelligence (AI) all across the country to make things better and stop fraudulent activities in the system that involves millions of farmers, a plethora of trucks and many storage places.
The department is using the latest technology to check if the wheat and rice they buy from farmers is of good. If it is not meeting the required quality, AI says no, so people get good food. The tech looks at things like water in the grains to make sure everything is top-notch.
As a pivotal entity in ensuring food security in the world’s most populous country, FCI procures millions of tonnes of farm produce at federally fixed minimum support prices (MSP) from around 12.3 million cultivators. The agency then redistributes this food to 800 million underprivileged individuals at no cost, as mandated by the National Food Security Act.
In the fiscal year 2022-23, FCI purchased 76.56 million tonnes of paddy and 26.2 million tonnes of wheat, disbursing ₹2.19 lakh crore to cultivators. This expenditure is accounted for in the government’s food subsidy bill.
To combat fraudulent practices such as recycling, where the same lot of grains is sold twice, FCI has implemented chemical testing. This initiative led to the detection of 140,000 tonnes of recycled rice. Additionally, GPS-enabled truck tracking systems are now employed by almost all transporters, ensuring real-time tracking of trucks carrying FCI food grains and facilitating efficient planning for intake in storage facilities.
The agency is using computers and video calls to make work easier and save money. It is also putting everything on the computer, so when rice is moved, everyone knows where it is going. If there is a problem, FCI even has a special phone line to help sort it out.
