Expanding grain storage with world’s largest grain storage plan

Under the pilot phase of the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan, 11 godowns with a 9,750 MT capacity were built across 11 states, supported by NCDC, NABARD, and NABCONS. PACS in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana use three storages, while three others were hired by government agencies.

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Under the Pilot Project for the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the cooperative sector, storage godowns have been built at the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) level in 11 PACS across 11 states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Telangana, Tripura, and Rajasthan. This initiative, supported by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS), has seen three godowns allocated for PACS’ internal use in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana. Meanwhile, state or central agencies have hired three godowns in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.

The project has now been expanded to include over 500 additional PACS across the country, identified as of November 21, 2024, for constructing new godowns under the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the cooperative sector.

The initiative integrates subsidies and interest subventions through various government schemes, such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) and the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI). The AIF scheme provides a 3% interest subvention on projects up to ₹2 crore, with a loan repayment tenure of two plus five years. Under the AMI scheme, PACS receive a 33.33% subsidy for storage construction. Additionally, the margin money requirement for PACS has been reduced from 20% to 10%. The plan also includes financial support for capital costs, such as boundary walls and drainage, with additional subsidies for ancillary infrastructure. This subsidy is capped at either one-third of the total permissible subsidy for the godown component or the actual cost, whichever is lower.

As part of the pilot phase, 11 godowns with a combined storage capacity of 9,750 MT have been successfully constructed in PACS across 11 states.