WFP head discusses grain ATM project with minister

BHUBANESWAR: Country director of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Elisabeth Faure on Monday called on Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak at Lokseva Bhawan and held a discussion on a range of issues concerning food security.

On a week-long tour to the state, Faure also discussed piloting a project to provide ration through automated teller machines (ATMs) to beneficiaries covered under national and state food security programmes. The state government has decided to set up the first grain ATM in the city. It signed several partnership agreements with the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2021.

Transformation of the public distribution system and paddy procurement, grain ATM and smart mobile storage units are some of the projects to be taken up under the agreement, the minister said. Elisabeth congratulated the minister for Odisha winning Global Planet Purpose Award for the drive for results at the Planet Explore 2023-Transparency to Action Conference in Washington DC, USA. The state got the award for using satellite-based imagery in paddy procurement to weed out bogus farmers and for effective disbursal of minimum support prices to farmers. 

The WFP country head also held separate discussions with secretaries of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare and Women and Child Development departments and the vice-chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. Elisabeth will have a joint consultation meeting with government officers and other stakeholders to discuss and decide the best way forward on food security, said Odisha WFP field officer Himansu Bal.