Government plans SPV for setting up foodgrain storage facilities

The government has decided to create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will assess infrastructure requirements for foodgrain handling and transport and storage and encourage private investment in grain storage facilities.

The SPV will also assess cold chain infrastructure requirements and try to attract private sector participation in creation of such facilities, minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution K V Thomas said today.

The minister was speaking at a conference on handling and storage of food, organised by the food ministry in partnership with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

The Planning Commission, meanwhile, will undertake a comprehensive study to suggest measures for creation of modern food grain storage infrastructure in the country, the minister said.

The government proposes to create additional food grain storage capacity of two million tonnes in the country through setting up of modern silos, Thomas said.

This will be part of about 15 million tonnes of new storage capacity being created under Public Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme of FCI. The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) is also creating 10,000 tonnes of temperature controlled storage facilities on pilot basis, the minister said.

He said the food ministry has also recently constituted a Warehousing Developing and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) to introduce negotiable warehousing receipt system in the country. This would enable farmers to avail better credit facilities from banks for their financial needs and creation of quality warehousing in the rural areas, he added.

Thomas had recently convened a series of regional conferences with the state food ministers at Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi to review measures taken to control inflation and revamp public distribution system, which include review and stocking of food grains.