Nearly ten lakh tonnes of Aman crop loss may have been caused by the cyclone. Annual food deficit has been estimated at 15-30 lakh tonnes in the recent years. Aman shortfall being too large to be met even by a bumper Boro harvest, most calculations put the overall deficit of foodgrains in the region of 40-50 lakh tonnes for the current fiscal year. Both public and private sector will have to go on massive import of foodgrains at high costs these are selling in the international market. Alongside, food grants should be welcomed. We can't scrounge too much from the internal source because these will push the prices up.

The pressure to buy food is already high as the buffer stock is 2.5 lakh tonnes less than the stipulated 10 lakh tonnes. The banks, customs and port authorities and transport sector must act in a synchronised fashion to help importers procure the cereals and disperse these all over the country, particularly the distressed pockets. LCs should be quickly opened and foreign exchange released equally speedily.

How do the afflicted people after three successive calamities buy the food being bought at high prices. This problem has to be mitigated on two levels. First, employment opportunities are to be created and income generating efforts supported to provide the people with purchasing power. The loss of homes, toll taken of their cattle and standing crops and their overall state of pauperisation mean that they need cash support. Apart from GR relief, test relief, food for work programme, the government will have to quickly act on its announcement that those who are indebted to banks will also be given loans. Secondly, the most important element of relief would be feeding as many people as possible through VGF cards.

The government's plan is to feed five million people through distribution of VGF cards to 25 lakh households from December needs to be expanded to at least include five more million people given the ravages of the cyclone.

An essential component of food security, let's not forget, is an efficient distribution system devoid of middlemen's interference and principally based on OMS.