The Union Cabinet has approved the constitution and empowerment of an Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) for facilitation of the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector” by convergence of various schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
- An Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Minister of Cooperation.
- In order to ensure time bound and uniform implementation of the Plan in a professional manner, Ministry of Cooperation will implement a pilot project in at least 10 selected Districts of different States/ UTs in the country.
- The Pilot would provide valuable insights into the various regional requirements of the project, the learnings from which will be suitably incorporated for the country-wide implementation of the Plan.
- The Plan would be implemented by utilizing the available outlays provided under the identified schemes of the respective Ministries. Under this scheme infrastructure such as godowns, etc. will be created for Agriculture and Allied purposes, at selected ‘viable’ Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).
- The plan is multi-pronged – it aims to address not just the shortage of agricultural storage infrastructure in the country by facilitating establishment of godowns at the level of PACS, but would also enable PACS to undertake various other activities, viz: Functioning as Procurement centres for State Agencies/ Food Corporation of India (FCI); Serving as Fair Price Shops (FPS); Setting up custom hiring centers; Setting up common processing units, including assaying, sorting, grading units for agricultural produce, etc.
- There are more than 1,00,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in the country with a huge member base of more than 13 crore farmers.
