BHUBANESWAR: The state government has identified Baisinga large area multipurpose cooperative society (LAMPS) of Mayurbhanj district to roll out a pilot project under the world’s largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector.
It is one of the 24 primary societies in the country to be developed as a modern foodgrain storage facility using the latest technology in the first phase. The Cooperation Department is in the process of identifying one primary agriculture cooperative society (PACS) in the remaining 29 districts for the next phase of the pilot project, said Registrar of Cooperative Societies UC Majhi.
The Ministry of Cooperation has requested the state government to identify one primary cooperative society for the phase of the pilot project and one each from other districts by September 30, 2023. “Divisional deputy directors have been asked to identify two viable PACS or LAMPS from each district having a minimum of one acre of vacant land for construction of a grain storage under the decentralised storage facility which will solve the paucity in storage capacity in the state,” he said.
Creation of decentralised storage capacity ranging from 500 MT to 2,000 MT at the PACS level will reduce food grain wastage by creating sufficient storage capacity, strengthening the food security of the country, preventing distress sale of crops and enabling farmers to realise better prices for their crops.
Since PACS are operating as paddy procurement centres as well as fair price shops (FPS), the cost incurred in transportation of food grains to procurement centres and again transporting the stocks back from warehouses to FPS will be saved. The estimated cost of the project for each PACS will vary and depend on various parameters such as storage capacity, requirement for custom hiring centre and processing units.
Interest subvention under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund will be dovetailed with the subsidies available under the identified schemes for the construction of godowns and other agri-infrastructure at PACS level, Majhi said.
In order to monitor the implementation of the pilot project, a state cooperative development committee (SCDC) at the state level and a district cooperative development committee (DCDC) in each district have been constituted under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary and district collector respectively. The committees will examine the storage gap, capacity utilization of the existing storage facility, capacity of proposed godowns, viability of the PACS, location of the proposed project, connectivity, logistics, availability of basic infrastructure and market linkages.