World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector

Key Highlights:

• The World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector is underway, with 313 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) completing godown construction.
• These completed PACS have created a total storage capacity of 1.80 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT).
• A total of 1,015 PACS across the country have been identified for godown construction under the plan.
• The plan integrates with Food Corporation of India (FCI) storage requirements and converges existing schemes like Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) and Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI).

Detailed Insights:

• The plan aims to create various agri-infrastructure at the PACS level, including godowns, custom hiring centers, processing units, and Fair Price Shops.
• It achieves this through the convergence of existing Government of India schemes, enhancing their financial viability and reach.
• Modifications to the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) include enhancing the credit guarantee from 2+5 years to 2+8 years.
• Under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) scheme, margin money requirement has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
• AMI construction costs have been revised upwards, and the subsidy increased to 33.33% for both plain and North-Eastern areas.
• An additional subsidy under AMI is provided for PACS for ancillary infrastructure like internal roads, weighbridges, and boundary walls.
• FCI has mapped a storage requirement of approximately 26.03 LMT across 216 locations in 18 States/Union Territories.
• FCI provides a uniform hiring assurance for 9 years to warehouses with a capacity of 2,500 metric tonnes or more (1,671 metric tonnes for North-Eastern and hilly regions).
• In Bihar, 36 PACS were identified, with construction commencing in 4 PACS in West Champaran district.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS): Grassroots-level cooperative credit institutions providing short-term and medium-term agricultural loans and services.
• Food Corporation of India (FCI): A public sector undertaking responsible for food grain procurement, storage, and distribution for the public distribution system.
• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF): A financing facility for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets.
• Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) Scheme: Provides subsidy for construction/renovation of rural godowns and other marketing infrastructure.