As many as 24,943 godowns with a capacity to store 28.43 million tonnes of foodgrain have been constructed in the last 10 years in rural areas under the Grameen Bhandara Yojana, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Grameen Bhandaran Yojana, a capital investment scheme for construction and renovation of rural godowns was introduced in 2001-2002 and has been extended for the 11th Plan Period.
Since inception of the scheme up to May 31, 2011, “24,942 godowns having a capacity of 284.31 lakh tonnes” have been constructed in rural areas, Food Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
He said Rs 732.23 crore worth of subsidy has been sanctioned by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC).
Under the scheme, subsidy at 25 per cent of the cost of the project is being given to farmers, agriculture graduates, cooperatives and state warehousing corporations. For
individual companies and corporations, subsidy is being given at 15 per cent, he added.
To augment storage capacity, the minister said that the government has formulated a scheme to build storage capacity of 15.27 million tonnes (MT) in 19 states through private participation.
Presently, the government is grappling with storage problems as foodgrains stocks are high at 61.27 MT so far, while that covered storage is only 44 MT. The rest is kept in open areas .
