In order to address the shortage of storage capacity for food grains in the country, the Government, on 31st May, 2023, has approved the Plan for the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector”, which has been rolled out as a Pilot Project. The Plan entails creation of various agri infrastructure at PACS level, including godowns, custom hiring centers, processing units, Fair Price Shops, etc. through convergence of various existing schemes of the Government of India (GoI), such as, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), etc. The status of State-wise implementation and progress is shown in Annexure-I.

The key lessons learnt during the Pilot Project were outdated AMI construction cost norms, lack of uniform cost provisions for both Plain and North-Eastern regions, absence of subsidy for ancillary infrastructure, limited financial strength of PACS and difficulty in arranging margin money, lack of standard documentation/SOPs causing delays, non-issuance of hiring assurances by State agencies hampering loan sanctioning, and the need to align PACS identification with storage-deficit locations mapped by FCI, NAFED, NCCF and SWCs.

In light of these learnings, several structural and policy-level improvements were implemented. Under the AIF Scheme, the loan repayment period was extended from 2+5 years to 2+8 years to ease credit servicing for PACS. Under the AMI scheme, comprehensive revisions were introduced:

• Margin money requirement reduced from 20% to 10%.
• The construction cost revised from ₹3000–3500/MT to ₹7000/MT for plain areas and from ₹4000/MT to ₹8000/MT for northeastern states.
• The subsidy increased for PACS from 25% to 33.33% (from ₹875/MT to ₹2333/MT for plain areas and from ₹1333.33/MT to ₹2666/MT for northeastern states).
• A provision made to provide an additional subsidy of 1/3 (one third) of the total admissible subsidy for ancillary infrastructure such as internal roads, weighbridges, boundary walls, etc., for PACS.

Further, to streamline implementation, a detailed Margdarshika/SOP, Model DPRs, and standard documents were shared with all stakeholders to eliminate inconsistencies and delays. To resolve issues related to hiring assurances, which were found critical for loan sanctioning, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) agreed to provide a uniform 9-year hiring assurance for all PACS godowns of 2,500 MT and above.

Recognizing the transformative potential of PACS, States were encouraged to integrate backward and forward linkages such as processing units and Custom Hiring Centers alongside godown construction to convert PACS into multipurpose entities.

Finally, in order to broaden implementation capacity and scale, the Plan was expanded beyond PACS to include all Cooperative Societies, Cooperative Federations, and Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS).

The Pilot Project demonstrated that PACS-level godowns can effectively function as multipurpose centres supporting procurement, Fair Price Shop operations, and Custom Hiring Centres.

****

Annexure-I

 

Status of Grain Storage Plan (as on 15-11-25)
S.No	State / Union Territory	Identified PACS/Cooperative Societies	DPR Submitted	Construction Completed	Capacity Created (MT)
1	Maharashtra	216	77	16	17,952
2	Odisha	120	19	0	0
3	Rajasthan	102	101	71	35,250
4	Gujarat	93	57	1	750
5	Jharkhand	50	0	0	0
6	Haryana	48	11	0	0
7	Uttar Pradesh	27	24	1	1,500
8	Chhattisgarh	14	0	0	0
9	Assam	12	1	1	500
10	Tripura	9	8	1	250
11	Jammu & Kashmir	6	1	0	0
12	Himachal Pradesh	2	0	0	0
13	Telangana	1	1	1	500
14	Karnataka	1	1	1	1,000
15	Tamil Nadu	1	1	1	1,000
16	Uttarakhand	1	1	1	500
17	Madhya Pradesh	1	1	1	500
18	Punjab	0	0	0	0
19	Nagaland	0	0	0	0
20	Meghalaya	0	0	0	0
21	Manipur	0	0	0	0
22	Arunachal Pradesh	0	0	0	0
23	Bihar	0	0	0	0
24	Andhra Pradesh	0	0	0	0
	Total	704	304	96	59,702

 

This information was given by Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

***

AK

 

(Release ID: 2201754) Visitor Counter : 650