India stares at farm produce storage crunch of 35 mn tonnes: Nabard

Storage on rental basis in private warehouses offers little; cotton output could aggravate problem further

Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), says the assessment is of an agricultural produce storage gap of 35 million tonnes (mt).

The agri procurement season’s peak is May-June. Agri finance and warehouse industry sources expect a huge requirement after the kharif harvest, with over 10 grain, cereal and oilseed crops trading below the government's Minimum Support Price (MSP).

Nabard has sanctioned a total of 9.29 mt of scientific grain storage capacity, of which 3.85 mt is operational. Nabard is the largest financer in this sector, said Bhanwala. Due to the shortage of storage, government