Nabard expects to benefit from its new warehousing scheme

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has huge expectation from Punjab and Haryana from its newly launched scheme called Nabard Warehousing Scheme 2013 -14 (NWS) which has a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.

The Union Finance Minister in his budget speech for the year 2013-14 had announced a dedicated scheme for providing assistance for creation of storage infrastructure with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.

The scheme titled "Nabard Warehousing Scheme" 2013-14 (NWS), approved by Union Finance Ministry also envisages disbursing direct loans for construction of warehouses, silos, cold storage and cold chain infrastructure.

Storage gap of 2.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) is estimated for warehousing in Punjab. Similarly in Haryana, there is an estimated requirement of about 2.2 MMT for warehouses.

Besides that both the states also have potential for promoting modern cold storage and cold chains for potatoes, other vegetables, and milk products, etc. According to Naresh Gupta, Chief General Manager, Nabard, "the scheme can be effectively utilised for reducing this storage gap and ensuring proper scientific storage of agriculture commodities."

Funds under this scheme would be utilized for meeting the growing demand for storage capacity for agricultural commodities in the entire country and also in the wake of enactment of National Food Security Act 2013.

Priority will be given for the projects proposed in Eastern and North Eastern states and all other deficit states from the food grain production point of view.

The warehouses and cold storage created from this scheme will be compliant to Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority ( WDRA) norms, which could facilitate pledge loan against stored commodities. This could help the farmers for better price realisation by way of storage and avoiding distress sale.