Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector Worldwide

As part of the Pilot Project for the World’s Largest Grain Storage plan in the cooperative sector, storage facilities have been established at the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) level across 11 states: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Telangana, Tripura, and Rajasthan.

This initiative has been supported by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS).

Three of the 11 storage facilities built are being utilized by PACS in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana for their purposes. In contrast, three others have been leased to State and Central agencies in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.

The Plan provides subsidies and interest support to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) by integrating various existing Government of India initiatives, such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) and the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI).

Under the AIF, a 3% interest subsidy is available for projects up to Rs 2 crore, with a loan repayment period of 2+5 years. Additionally, the AMI offers a 33.33% subsidy to PACS for the construction of storage units. The margin money requirement for PACS has also been reduced from 20% to 10% under the AMI scheme.

In addition, to support capital costs related to storage infrastructure (including ancillary expenses like boundary walls and drainage), PACS can now receive an extra subsidy for ancillary costs, capped at one-third of the total permissible subsidy for the godown component or the actual cost, whichever is lower.

Additionally, the Pilot Project has been expanded, and as of November 21, 2024, over 500 more PACS have been identified nationwide for the construction of warehouses under the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector.

As part of the Pilot Project, the construction of 11 storage warehouses across 11 PACS in 11 states has been completed, providing a total storage capacity of 9,750 MT.

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