Policy on agri warehousing in PPP mode soon
The Andhra Pradesh government will be coming up with a comprehensive policy for the development of agricultural warehousing facilities in public-private partnership (PPP) model in a month, said YR Krishna Rao, special chief secretary (state agriculture marketing and cooperative department).
Speaking at the inaugural session of a seminar on agriculture warehousing organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, Rao said with the introduction of the Food Security Bill, the demand for modern warehousing facilities was increasing.
Escalation in the cost of the land has become a severe impediment to developing modern warehousing facilities, he said, adding to address the increasing demand for warehousing facilities, the state government was coming up with the policy in the PPP mode.
According to Anil Kumar V Epur, chairman (sub-committee on agriculture and food processing), CII southern region, value addition of agriculture produce is necessary for accelerating economic growth in general and agriculture growth in particular.
“Inadequate post-harvest storage and transportation are causing a loss of around 40 per cent of the produce in the country,” Epur added.