Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution launched the ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ (Digital Gateway) of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA).
Key points
- It aims to facilitate farmers in obtaining post-harvest loans from banks against their stocks stored in the WDRA registered warehouses.
- The loans are provided against electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (e-NWRs). At present, there are more than 5,500 registered warehouses under WDRA, while the total number of agri-warehouses is estimated at around 1 lakh.
- The security deposit charges at WDRA registered warehouses will soon be reduced to encourage more farmers, especially small farmers, to utilize the warehouses and enhance their income.
- The farmers stocking their produce at these warehouses would need to pay only 1% security deposit instead of earlier 3%.
- ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ with its no collateral, extra security deposit policy can prevent distress sale by farmers who often have to sell their entire harvest at cheaper rates due to poor post-harvest storage opportunities.
- It can ease the procedure of farmers’ storage at any registered WDRA warehouse for a period of 6 months at 7% interest per annum.
