To improve market linkages for the farmers, the warehouses registered with the warehousing development and regulatory authority (WDRA) should be designated as deemed market-yards under the states’ agricultural produce market committee (APMC) act, an expert committee set up by the agriculture ministry on Tuesday stated.
The committee has stated declaring warehouses, silos and cold storages as ‘deemed market yards’ would reduce post harvest and transportation losses and address the issue of distress sales by farmers.
It stated that while a majority of states have made this provision in their APMC act, several states have not framed the rules to make storage facilities as mandi yards. “It is only the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, which have notified rules also to implement it,” the committee has stated.
So far 5634 warehouses are registered with WDRA. Out of 0.1 million agri-warehouses in the country, 40,000 are privately held.
In the current fiscal, a record 1900 odd storage facilities for agricultural commodities have been registered with the authority.
The committee also noted that there has been no progress of trading of e-NWRs on the electronic-national agriculture market (e-NAM). It stated that to facilitate inter-state trade via e-NWR through eNAM and other registered e-trading platforms, the centre may set up an ‘authority’ for the purpose.
The committee has suggested providing incentives for prompt repayment of loans availed by the farmers against e-NWR while similar similar facilities are available for loans upto Rs Rs 3,00,000 taken on Kisan credit cards (KCCs).
The committee has recommended agriculture ministry to take up the matter with department of financial services, RBI to reduce the risk weighted average on eNWR loans; and with NABARD also to offer some incentive to banks using eNWRs for pledge loans.
The committee also recommended that scheduled commercial banks and district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) including regional rural banks should be allowed for pledge finance to farmers for rotation of the KCC loan from pre-harvest to post -harvest finance.
Food minister Piyush Goyal on Monday while launching online digital gateway e-Upaja Kisaan Nidhu had stated that it can ease the procedure of farmers’ storage at any WDRA registered warehouse for a period of six months with an 7% interest per annum.
After the harvesting season, when prices of the commodities decline, farmers can deposit their commodities at the WDRA registered warehouses and generate e-NWRs for accessing bank credit for the next crop.
The expert committee has also recommended that the warehouses of all eligible primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) should be registered with WDRA and DCCBs should be encouraged to offer pledge loans to farmers having KCC for the produce stored in the PACS’ warehouses.