At a time when the eastern region is increasing its grain production armed with the ?Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India? programme of the central government, the seven states in the region are being pulled back due to lack of infrastructure.
According to the Union agriculture ministry, while grain storage capacity is picking up in West Bengal, there is little progress in Bihar and the North Eastern states. Ministry sources said that long payback period and low levels of viability are the main reasons for the imbalance.
Seven states in the eastern region have recorded 2.2% increase in grain production during 2011-12. While paddy production in West Bengal has increased to 15.12 million tonne(mt) in 2011-12 from 13 mt in 2010-11, that in Jharkhand has increased to 3.3 mt in 2011-12 from 1.1 mt in 2010-11. Paddy production in Bihar has increased to 7 mt in 2011-12 from 6.15 mt in 2010-11 and that in Chhattisgarh has increased to 6.24 mt in 2011-12 from 6.15 mt in 2010-11. Paddy production has dropped marginally in Orissa to 6.82 mt this year from last year?s level of 6.85 mt.
The latest data from the Food Corporation of India shows that while Bihar and Jharkhand have a state government owned storage of 30,000 tonne each, Orissa and Assam do not have any state government owned storage space and is entirely dependent on FCI, CWC, SWC and privately owned facilities. West Bengal has 19,000 tonne of government owned storage space for grain.
Faced with an upward spike in grain production the union food ministry has already invited tenders for creating additional storage in eastern states. While additional 300,000 tonne capacity will be created in Bihar, 222,000 tonne in Chhattisgarh, 175,000 tonne in Jharkhand, 300,000 tonne in Orissa, 156,000 tonne will be created in West Bengal.
The central government?s proposal to create warehouse facilities through PPP model has failed to draw response in the North Eastern region due to the reluctance of financial institutions to provide credit facilities to such back-ended credit linked projects.
According to sources, a community land holding pattern in the North Eastern region does not facilitate land collateral in the name of individual borrowers.
Moreover, lack of investment in logistics of the retail chain has also led to a fragmented market chain. There is wide variation in the availability of marketing infrastructure such as auction platform, electronic weigh bridge, storages and warehousing facilities, cleaning, grading and packaging facilities.