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India now has a bigger stockpile of grain than any country except China


Her family is among the estimated 250 million Indians who do not get enough to eat. Spurred by agricultural innovation and generous farm subsidies, India now grows so much food that it has a bigger grain stockpile than any country except China, and it exports some of it to countries like Saudi Arabia and Australia. Yet one-fifth of its people are malnourished — double the rate of other developing countries like Vietnam and China — because of pervasive corruption, mismanagement and waste in the programs that are supposed to distribute food to the poor.Much of the extra money would go to buy more grain, even though the government already has a tremendous stockpile of wheat and rice — 71 million tons as of early May, up 20 percent from a year earlier.Just 41.4 percent of the grain picked up by the states from federal warehouses reaches Indian homes, according to a recent World Bank studyBajaj, Vikas. "As Grain Piles Up, India’s Poor Still Go Hungry." The New York Times 7 June 2012, Global Bussiness sec.: n. pag. Print. Online source available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/business/global/a-failed-food-system-i...

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