Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Amid the disruptions in food supply and high inflation because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war increasing food security concerns in several countries, including India, New Delhi has approved the world’s largest foodgrain storage scheme, envisaging an investment of Rs. One trillion (Rs. One lakh crore).
Under this plan, every block will have a godown with a capacity of storing 2,000 metric tons of food grain, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday during a briefing on Cabinet decisions.
The Centre is set to introduce a policy for this mammoth storage scheme under the cooperative societies sector, he said.
The government will allocate about Rs. One trillion on this scheme. An inter-ministerial committee has also been formed to oversee this, Thakur said.
This is part of a plan to expand India’s foodgrain storage facilities, which will help the cooperative sector, he said.
India currently has a storage capacity of 1.450 million tons. Under the new scheme, the cooperatives will add 70 million tons of storage capacity. At present, India has nearly 65,000 agricultural cooperative societies.
The move will improve food security in India, and help farmers get better product prices. Until now, they had to sell their products in a hurry because of climate-related vagaries, he added.
The new initiative will benefit both agricultural societies, farmers, and consumers. Farmers will be able to obtain up to 70 percent of loans from these societies in addition to storing their produce in the facilities, Thakur said, adding it will also result in significant savings in transportation costs.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Centre had decided to merge several schemes to develop the world’s largest grain storage scheme. Schemes under Union Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, and Food Processing are likely to be merged soon.