The Indian storage situation is steadily worsening. After the rains, millions of tons of wheat, which had no place to be properly stored and were left in the open, are now rotting with mildew. In some provinces, farmers are sifting through rotting wheat to find grains which are still edible—from piles of wheat that had been left outside for nearly a year—in order to repack and sell what they can salvage. The government had been warned in April of the storage shortage but was reluctant to export more grain due to fear of political protests at a time of inflating food prices. Selling this grain to the poor at a subsidized price is not an option, as the fiscal deficit would expand. Wasting grain is seen as an atrocity by many, as nearly half of India’s children under 5 are malnourished.
http://news.yahoo.com/indian-wheat-rots-open-bumper-harvest-082549835–finance.html
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