Cabinet okays Rs 1 lakh cr to create grain storage functionality in cooperative sector

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a bid to strengthen India’s meals security place and cease distress sell-off by farmers on account of lack of storage, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday permitted a scheme value Rs 1 lakh crore to increase the nation’s meals grain storage functionality by 700 lakh tonnes inside the cooperative sector and improve storage functionality on the block stage.

The scheme — envisaged as a result of the world’s “largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector” — targets to converge diversified schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

The functionality addition to retailer 700 lakh tonnes will be completed in a timeframe of 5 years, said Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur whereas asserting the selection taken by the Union Cabinet in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The authorities’s step comes inside the wake of India at current having a storage functionality of 1450 lakh tonnes which allows storage of solely 47 per cent of its grains produced inside the nation. 

Under the prevailing storage infrastructure, a superb portion of the produce will get wasted yearly or is purchased off by farmers in distress due to the dearth of storage companies.

Thakur said that the programme will start “with an expenditure of around Rs 1 lakh crore” and as per the scheme design each block will get a godown of two,000-tonne functionality.

To facilitate the enterprise an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, with the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Minister of Food Processing Industries and the respective secretaries. 

The committee will modify pointers/implementation methodologies of the schemes of the respective ministries as and when the need arises, all through the permitted outlays and prescribed targets, for facilitation of this programme by creation of infrastructure, similar to godowns, and so forth. for agriculture and allied capabilities, at chosen ‘viable’ Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).

The Plan will be utilized by utilizing the on the market outlays equipped under the acknowledged schemes of the respective Ministries inside the Union Budget.

As per the plan the National Level Coordination Committee will be normal inside the subsequent 7 days and the implementation pointers will be issued inside 15 days of the Cabinet approval.

Also, a portal for the linkage of PACS with Central and State Governments will be rolled out inside 45 days of the Cabinet approval and the implementation of the proposal will start inside 45 days of the selection.

With higher than 1,00,000 PACS inside the nation with a member base of higher than 13 crore farmers the initiative has been undertaken to rearrange decentralized storage functionality on the stage of PACS along with completely different agri infrastructure, which could not solely strengthen the meals security of the nation nonetheless would moreover permit PACS to transform themselves into vibrant monetary entities, Thakur said.

To assure time-bound and uniform implementation of the plan, the Ministry of Cooperation will implement a pilot enterprise in as a minimum 10 chosen districts of assorted states/ UTs inside the nation.

The pilot would provide priceless insights into the numerous regional requirements of the enterprise, the learnings from which will be suitably built-in for the country-wide implementation of the plan.

The schemes have been acknowledged for convergence under the plan.

In the Ministry of Agriculture, the schemes are the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM).

The schemes acknowledged under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries are the Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME) and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).

In the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the programmes for the allocation of meals grains under the National Food Security Act and procurement operations at Minimum Support Price (MSP) have been acknowledged.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: In a bid to strengthen India’s meals security place and cease distress sell-off by farmers on account of lack of storage, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday permitted a scheme value Rs 1 lakh crore to increase the nation’s meals grain storage functionality by 700 lakh tonnes inside the cooperative sector and improve storage functionality on the block stage.

The scheme — envisaged as a result of the world’s “largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector” — targets to converge diversified schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

The functionality addition to retailer 700 lakh tonnes will be completed in a timeframe of 5 years, said Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur whereas asserting the selection taken by the Union Cabinet in New Delhi on Wednesday.googletag.cmd.push(carry out() googletag.present(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

The authorities’s step comes inside the wake of India at current having a storage functionality of 1450 lakh tonnes which allows storage of solely 47 per cent of its grains produced inside the nation. 

Under the prevailing storage infrastructure, a superb portion of the produce will get wasted yearly or is purchased off by farmers in distress due to the dearth of storage companies.

Thakur said that the programme will start “with an expenditure of around Rs 1 lakh crore” and as per the scheme design each block will get a godown of two,000-tonne functionality.

To facilitate the enterprise an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, with the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Minister of Food Processing Industries and the respective secretaries. 

The committee will modify pointers/implementation methodologies of the schemes of the respective ministries as and when the need arises, all through the permitted outlays and prescribed targets, for facilitation of this programme by creation of infrastructure, similar to godowns, and so forth. for agriculture and allied capabilities, at chosen ‘viable’ Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).

The Plan will be utilized by utilizing the on the market outlays equipped under the acknowledged schemes of the respective Ministries inside the Union Budget.

As per the plan the National Level Coordination Committee will be normal inside the subsequent 7 days and the implementation pointers will be issued inside 15 days of the Cabinet approval.

Also, a portal for the linkage of PACS with Central and State Governments will be rolled out inside 45 days of the Cabinet approval and the implementation of the proposal will start inside 45 days of the selection.

With higher than 1,00,000 PACS inside the nation with a member base of higher than 13 crore farmers the initiative has been undertaken to rearrange decentralized storage functionality on the stage of PACS along with completely different agri infrastructure, which could not solely strengthen the meals security of the nation nonetheless would moreover permit PACS to transform themselves into vibrant monetary entities, Thakur said.

To assure time-bound and uniform implementation of the plan, the Ministry of Cooperation will implement a pilot enterprise in as a minimum 10 chosen districts of assorted states/ UTs inside the nation.

The pilot would provide priceless insights into the numerous regional requirements of the enterprise, the learnings from which will be suitably built-in for the country-wide implementation of the plan.

The schemes have been acknowledged for convergence under the plan.

In the Ministry of Agriculture, the schemes are the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM).

The schemes acknowledged under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries are the Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME) and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).

In the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the programmes for the allocation of meals grains under the National Food Security Act and procurement operations at Minimum Support Price (MSP) have been acknowledged.

(With additional inputs from PTI)