Inmost ides foodgrain production is marked by weatherinspired fluctuations. This in turn, given the inelastic nature of demand and supply, causes large inter- and intra-year variations in the prices of foodgrains. The seasonal nature of agricultural production and the low holding capacity of producersdue to immediate cash needs as well as to lack of proper storage facilitiesresults in heavy market arrivals in the immediate post-harvest months which in turn lead to a sharp decline in prices during this period.

To tackle this problem effectively, ides have often adopted a system of domestic procurement and public distribution of foodgrains, and the maintenance of a buffer stock. In the context of procurement on behalf of the public distribution system and the operation of the buffer stock, the need to have proper storage facilities requires no emphasis. Crudely, the alternatives are either to depend solely upon large warehouses operated by the public agencies or to improve and/or create additional storage facilities with the farmers.

In Part I I shall discuss India's experience of the pros and cons of the two methods of storage from the point of view of economic efficiency.

In Part II I discuss the effectiveness of food loss prevention, labour absorption capacity, capital requirements and social cost-benefits of two techniques of improving farm level storage - improved structures based on suitably modifying the existing structures, and modern structures. For the food technologist a choice between these two would be based on relative food loss-prevention performance but for the farmer, choice of storage structure is determined by a wider range of factors, in which the commonly recognised causes of food loss are often insignificant.

These factors include the local cost and availability of raw materials, space availability, security against theft, fire and flood, traditional beliefs about storage locationoften reflecting local experience concerning the significance of other loss factors and consumption patterns. Because of these factors these two techniques cannot be regarded as alternatives in all cases, but there are many situations where they can be.