The Project Sanctioning Committee of NABARD has sanctioned Rs 1,112 crore for creation of 1,336 warehouses in various states and state government corporations in Haryana, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal, which will create 7.5 lakh MT of additional storage space.
Cumulatively, NABARD has sanctioned Rs 5,830 crore under Rural Infrastructure/Warehousing Infrastructure Fund creating and additional capacity of 16.3 million MT as against 35 million MT intended to be established under 12th Five Year Plan," NABARD Chairman Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said in a release.
It is worth mentioning that in order to meet additional storage requirements on account of the National Food Security Act, 2013 as well as to augment the storage requirements of agricultural commodities for better market access and liquidity support, NABARD has been giving fillip to creation of warehousing infrastructure in rural areas.
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NABARD warehousing was introduced in 2013-14 as a sequel to Union Budgetary announcement with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore and the scheme envisages financial support for warehouses, godowns, silos, cold storages and cold chain infrastructure to store agricultural produce both in the public and private sectors.
The warehouses funded by NABARD are mandated to conform to the accreditation standards of Warehouse Development Authority which will facilitate better liquidity to farmers through Negotiable Ware house Receipts. NABARD has already successfully piloted a hub and spoke model for better price discovery mechanism involving primary agricultural societies and collateral managers in six districts of Andhra Pradesh which will be replicated in other parts of the country such as Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The warehouses funded under the scheme relates to storage of food grains for public distribution system, storage of both food grains and commercial crops as well as storage infrastructure in Kisan bazaars and APMCs.
