Press Release
NABARD gives fillip to warehouse infrastructure
Mumbai: 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, liquidity support, NABARD has
been giving fillip to creation of warehousing infrastructure in rural areas. “The
recent Project Sanctioning Committee of NABARD has sanctioned Rs 1,112 crore
for creation of 1,336 warehouses in State Governments 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,” said Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD.
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 Warehouse 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.
In order to leverage private sector efficiency and funding of PPP projects, in a
stakeholder meeting of major private sector operators in warehousing space such as
NCMSL, NBHC, SSL, Star Agri, Adani Wilmar, etc. were consulted in designing loan
products. Further, efforts are made to get cold chain infrastructure proposals from
Dairy Federations and Producers' Collectives.
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National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
Head Office: Plot No. C-24, G Block, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai - 400 051
www.nabard.org
NABARD Warehousing Scheme (NWS)
Background:
1. We have less warehouse capacity in the country, apparently as warehousing is not
very attractive to investors.
2. As a rule of thumb we must have warehousing capacity to a tune of at least 70% of
production.
3. The total agri warehousing capacity in India is about 109 million tonnes as
against the total demand of about 180 million tonnes.
4. The Planning Commission has estimated creation of storage space of 35 million
tonnes for food grains during 12th Five Year Plan.
5. The Government of India, in the last Union Budget, announced creation of
Rs 5,000 crore corpus with NABARD for funding public and private sector storage
infrastructure projects. This corpus is expected to augment the existing storage
capacity in the country by 10 million MT.
6. The objective of the Warehousing Fund is to meet the food grain requirements as
envisaged under National Food Security Act, 2013 and arrest the distress sale of
farm produce by farmers. The NABARD Warehousing Scheme (NWS) was
introduced in September 2013 with funds from the corpus.
NABARD Warehousing Scheme:
1. Eligible activities for funding: Warehouses, silos, agri-logistic parks, storage
infrastructure in market yards and food parks and cold chain activities like precooling units, cold storage, controlled atmosphere (CA) stores, reefer vans, bulk
coolers, individual quick frozen (IQF) units, chilling infrastructure, etc.
2. The Institutions eligible for funding: The State Governments, entities
owned/sponsored by State Governments, Panchayat Raj Institutions, agencies
owned/sponsored by the Government of India, cooperatives, federation of
cooperatives, individual entrepreneurs, companies, corporate, etc.
3. The undertaking for obtaining accreditation/registration from EDRA on
completion of the infrastructure loans is a must.
__________________________________________________________________________
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
Head Office: Plot No. C-24, G Block, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai - 400 051
www.nabard.org