(a) whether the Government is planning to strengthen cold storage and warehouse infrastructure facilities in the country including Gujarat;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the present capacity of cold storage and warehousing in the country; and
(d) the details of the cold storage and warehouse infrastructure created during the last three years, State-wise including Gujarat?
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 37 DUE FOR REPLY ON 20th JULY, 2021.
(a) & (b): Government is implementing various schemes under which financial assistance is provided for setting up of cold storages and warehouses infrastructure facilities for storage of agriculture and perishable horticulture produce throughout the country including Gujarat.
Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is implementing Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) under which financial assistance is provided for various horticulture activities including setting up of cold storages. The component is demand/entrepreneur driven for which Government assistance in the form of credit linked back ended subsidy is available at the rate of 35% for general areas and at the rate of 50% in Hilly and Scheduled areas of eligible capital cost of the project for both public and private sector enterprises. The scheme is available for all States/UTs including the State of Gujarat.
Further, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure as one of the component of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana with the objective of reducing post-harvest losses of horticulture and non-horticulture produce and providing remunerative price to farmers for their produce. Under the scheme, Ministry provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 35% for general areas and 50% for North East States, Himalayan States, ITDP areas and Islands for storage and transport infrastructure and at the rate of 50% and 75% respectively for value addition and processing infrastructure subject to a maximum grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 crore per project for setting up integrated cold chain projects including irradiation facility. Standalone cold storages are not covered under the Scheme. The scheme is available for all States/UTs including the State of Gujarat.
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Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is implementing Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), a sub-scheme of Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM) across the country including Gujarat. AMI is demand driven, credit linked, back ended subsidy scheme. Under the scheme, subsidy at the rate of 25% for plain areas and 33.33% for NER, hilly area is available for beneficiaries viz, Farmers, Individuals, Agri-preneurs, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Cooperatives, and state agencies etc.for development of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Projects including storage infrastructure.
Further, to strengthen agriculture infrastructure in the country, Government has launched Agriculture Infrastructure Funds (AIF) of Rs. 1.0 lakh crore. Under AIF, there is provision for collateral free term loan up to Rs. 2.0 crore and interest subvention of 3% on the term loan availed under AIF. All the post harvest infrastructure including establishment of cold storages and warehouses are eligible for this financing facility through AIF.
(c): The present capacity of cold storages is 37.68 million MT and warehouses is 173.65 million MT in the country.
(d): As per available information, 266 numbers of cold storages with capacity of 1.38 million MT have been created in the country including Gujarat during the last three years under MIDH scheme. Further, 1512 number of warehouses with capacity of 4.00 million MT have been created in the country including Gujarat during last three years under ISAM Scheme. State-wise details of cold storages and warehouses created during last three years in the country including Gujarat are at Annexure – I and Annexure – II respectively.