India, Sept. 28 -- The Government of India has issued a release:
Introduction
India's agricultural sector, one of the largest in the world, is the backbone of its economy, serving as a cornerstone for ensuring food security, employment generation, and economic growth. Food grains, forming the foundation of human diet, primarily include cereals such as rice, wheat, millets such as maize, jowar, and bajra, and pulses such as arhar, moong, urad, chana, and masoor. Rich in carbohydrates, proteins, and essential nutrients, these food grains are central to ensuring food security and nutrition in India.
We produce record harvests year after year. Modern storage infrastructure ensures that our agricultural produce, i.e., food grains and perishables are preserved safely, minimizing post-harvest losses and stabilizing prices. By reducing wastage and extending the shelf life of produce, storage plays a pivotal role in linking farms to markets and empowering farmers to realize better returns. At the same time, it strengthens the foundation of the food processing industry. For a growing nation like India, with rising demand for both raw and processed food, efficient storage is central to maintaining year-round availability of essential commodities. It helps secure buffer stocks, supports the Public Distribution System (PDS), and ensures that every grain harvested contributes to national nutrition and economic growth. In this way, robust storage infrastructure becomes a cornerstone of both agricultural prosperity and food security.
The Importance of Food Grain Storage
Effective storage infrastructure is vital for managing India's food supply chain, reducing wastage, and ensuring both farmer and consumer welfare.
Key Objectives of Storage:
* Reducing Post-Harvest Losses: Proper storage, including cold storage and modern warehouses, significantly reduces the wastage of agricultural produce.
* Ensuring Food Security: Maintaining a buffer stock of food grains is essential for national food security and for distribution under programmes like the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
* Preventing Distress Sales: Access to storage facilities allows farmers to hold their produce and sell it at an optimal time, avoiding distress sales and helping them realise better prices.
* Price Stabilisation: Maintaining strategic buffer stocks helps protect consumers from extreme price volatility in essential commodities.
* Maintaining Quality: Scientific storage ensures that food grains remain fit for human consumption by controlling factors like moisture and pests.
Food Grain Storage Systems in India
There are various methods of storing foodgrains, and some of the key ones include:
Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the primary agency responsible for centralized storage of food grains in India. Under the centralized procurement system, the procurement of food grains in Central Pool is undertaken either by FCI directly or by State Govt. Agencies (SGA). Quantity procured by SGAs is handed over to FCI for storage and the cost of the food grains procured by State agencies is reimbursed by FCI. The FCI manages this stock, storing it and subsequently issuing it for distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS) or moving surplus stocks to other states as needed.
FCI procures wheat, rice, and other grains at Minimum Support Price (MSP) to safeguard farmers' incomes and maintain adequate buffer stocks. These stocks are stored in scientifically managed warehouses and modern steel silos, ensuring quality and safety. FCI's reserves form the backbone of the Public Distribution System (PDS), helping to stabilize prices and guarantee nationwide food security throughout the year.
The cold storage infrastructure plays a vital role in preserving perishable commodities such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, and seafood. These temperature-controlled facilities help maintain freshness, quality, and nutritional value, reducing post-harvest losses. Cold chain infrastructure includes facilities for pre-cooling, weighing, sorting, grading, packaging, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage, blast freezing, and refrigerated transport like reefer vans. These facilities are vital for extending the shelf life of perishable goods. The government provides significant financial assistance for setting up cold storage and cold chain projects through various schemes/initiatives like PMKSY, AIF, etc. As of June 30, 2025, India has 8,815 cold storages with a combined capacity of 402.18 lakh metric tonnes (MT).
Introduced in 1997-98, this scheme allows state governments to directly procure, store, and distribute food grains themselves under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes. This encourages local procurement, saves on transit costs, and helps in distributing grains suited to local tastes. The central government funds the entire expenditure incurred by the states on these operations.
Decentralised Storage is carried out primarily through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS). PACS are the grass root level arms of the short-term co-operative credit structure. PACS deals directly with the rural (agricultural) borrowers, give those loans and collect repayments of loans given and also undertake distribution and marketing functions.
PACS play a crucial role in this system. By creating village-level storage capacities ranging from 500 MT to 2000 MT, PACS allow farmers to store grains close to home, minimizing losses and helping them secure better prices. Functioning as both procurement centres and Fair Price Shops (FPS), PACS reduce transportation costs by eliminating the need to move grains from distant warehouses to FPS, ensuring greater efficiency and saving.
To further improve PACS functioning, the government has approved a project to computerize operational PACS with a financial outlay of Rs. 2,516 crores, enhancing transparency, record-keeping, and efficiency. As of June 30, 2025, 73,492 PACS have been computerized. A total of 5,937 new PACS have been registered across the country, further expanding their reach and capacity to support farmers at the village level.
Schemes for Strengthening Storage of Foodgrains
A. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)
AIF was launched in 2020 to strengthen agricultural infrastructure across India. It is a medium-long term debt financing facility through interest subvention and credit guarantee support on loans for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and viable farming assets. The scheme focuses on the creation of farm-gate storage and logistics facilities to help farmers store their produce effectively and sell it at better prices by minimizing post-harvest losses and reducing dependence on intermediaries. Infrastructure such as warehouses, cold storage, sorting and grading units, and ripening chambers enhances farmers' ability to access wider markets and improve value realization, thereby boosting their income.
B. Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)
AMI scheme is a key component of the Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM). The objective of this scheme is to strengthen agricultural marketing infrastructure across rural India by providing financial assistance for the construction and renovation of godowns and warehouses.
It is a comprehensive scheme designed to build modern infrastructure for the food processing sector, creating a smooth and efficient supply chain from the farm gate to retail. It helps farmers get better prices for their produce, reduces wastage, and supports the goal of doubling farmers' income especially in rural areas, increases food processing levels, and boosts exports of processed food products. Its component scheme, the Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, supports the creation of cold chains to reduce post-harvest losses of horticultural and non-horticultural produce.
This scheme aims to promote scientific storage infrastructure and reduce post-harvest losses of perishable produce. Under the scheme, a credit-linked back-ended subsidy is provided at the rate of 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% in North-Eastern, hilly, and scheduled areas for construction, expansion, or modernization of cold storages and Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storages with capacities between 5,000 MT and 20,000 MT. This initiative helps farmers and entrepreneurs improve storage, enhance shelf life, secure better prices, and strengthen the horticulture value chain.
The government, in May 2023, approved the World's Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector, aligned with the vision of "Atmanirbhar Bharat". The scheme involves the creation of agri infrastructure at PACS level, including godowns, custom hiring center, processing units, and fair price shops through convergence of various existing schemes of the government, such as, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), etc. The key objectives and outcomes of this integration include:
Conclusion
Agriculture remains the lifeline of India, feeding millions while sustaining livelihoods and driving economic growth. While record foodgrain production reflects India's agricultural strength, efficient storage and distribution ensure that every grain reaches the consumer. the production and storage of food grains are crucial for national food security. with a growing population and changing climate, maintaining sufficient stocks, improving storage infrastructure, and reducing post-harvest losses are essential to ensure year-round availability and price stability. Thus, food grains are more than just crops - they are the backbone of agricultural growth, rural income, and global food systems.
References
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU4468_koies7.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU2925_wt7OY2.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU2772_gR0csF.pdf?sourcepqals
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare
https://dfpd.gov.in/scheme/en
https://agriinfra.dac.gov.in/Home/Dashboard
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU4190_7AFvJY.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU3906_VMLC28.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU2695_LmiGmN.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU2695_LmiGmN.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU273_QNtGUE.pdf?sourcepqals
https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2021/dec/doc2021121721.pdf
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId154987&ModuleId3
http://pressclip.nddb.coop/PRC%20%20Press%20Clippings/PIB-Worlds%20Largest%20Food%20Grain%20Storage%20Plan_010823.pdf https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID2146934
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID2117766
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https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID1927464
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https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId154999&ModuleId3
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID2037655
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID2055990
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID2155614
Ministry of Cooperation
https://www.cooperation.gov.in/index.php/en/about-primary-agriculture-cooperative-credit-societies-pacs
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AS339_RCAKEJ.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AU4294_L70M1K.pdf?sourcepqals
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/185/AS225_nsgLve.pdf?sourcepqals
Ministry of Food Processing Industries
https://pmfme.mofpi.gov.in/pmfme/#/Home-Page
FSSAI
https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/5_%20Chapter%202_4%20%28Cereals%20and%20Cereal%20products%29.pdf
Click here to see PDF
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
