(a) the details of the financial assistance being provided by the Government for setting up of cold storage facilities in rural areas;
(b) whether the Government has formulated any scheme for providing storage facilities and setting up food processing parks in the areas where huge amount of agricultural produce is being destroyed;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the action taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a) to (d) Government has formulated various schemes for providing financial assistance for establishment of cold storage facilities, storage facilities and food processing parks in the country including rural areas as follows:
Department of Agriculture & 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 through State Governments. The component is demand/ entrepreneur-driven from among entrepreneurs, private companies, cooperatives, farmers groups etc through commercial ventures for which assistance at the rate of 35% of admissible project cost in general areas and 50% in hilly and scheduled area is available as credit linked back ended subsidy.
Besides, National Horticulture Board (NHB) is implementing a scheme namely “Capital Investment Subsidy for Construction/Expansion /Modernization of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Products”. It is a demand/entrepreneur driven under which credit linked back-ended subsidy at the rate of 35% of the capital cost of the project in general areas and 50% in case of North East, hilly & scheduled areas for construction/expansion/modernization of cold storage and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage of capacity above 5000 MT and up to 10000 MT is available. In case of North Eastern States, the units with capacity above 1000 MT are also eligible for assistance.
Further, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) is implementing a Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure as one of the components of Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojana 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 and 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.
Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare is also implementing Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), a sub-scheme of Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM) across the country. 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, Farmers, Group of farmers/growers, Agri-preneurs, Registered Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Cooperatives, and state agencies etc. for development of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Projects including storage infrastructure.
Depending on requirement in specific areas and for modernization of the storage facilities, the Government has been implementing the following schemes for construction of Warehouse/godowns including silos in the country:
i. Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) Scheme: Under this Scheme, which was formulated in 2008, storage capacity is created by private parties, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and State Government Agencies for guaranteed hiring by FCI.
ii. Central Sector Scheme: This scheme is implemented in the North Eastern States along with Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Kerala. Funds are released by the Government to FCI and also directly to the State Governments for construction of godowns.
iii. Construction of steel silos: In addition to conventional godowns, construction of steel silos has been undertaken from 2016 for modernizing the storage infrastructure and improving shelf life of stored foodgrains.
With a view to reduce wastage of agricultural produce in various parts of the country and enhance processing levels, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) for providing modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market. The Scheme is implemented in a cluster based approach which includes creation of infrastructure for primary processing and storage near the farm gate at Primary Processing Centers (PPCs), Collection Centres (CCs) and common facilities and enabling infrastructure at Central Processing Centre. The scheme provides for a capital grant @50% of the eligible project cost in general areas and @75% in difficult and hilly areas i.e. North East Region including J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and ITDP notified areas of the States subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 Crore per project.
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