**Executive Summary**
On May 31, 2023, the Government approved the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector” to address grain storage shortages through decentralized scientific infrastructure. The plan converges multiple existing schemes to provide Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with subsidies, interest subvention, and a 9-year hiring assurance from the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Implementation is governed by a standard operating procedure requiring construction completion within six months of loan sanctioning.
**Key Points / Main Content**
**Financial Incentives and Scheme Amendments**
* **Reduced Margin Money:** The margin money requirement for projects has been lowered from 20% to 10%.
* **Increased Subsidies:** The subsidy for PACS has been raised from 25% to 33.33%.
* **Ancillary Infrastructure:** An additional subsidy of one-third of the total admissible subsidy is provided for internal roads, weighbridges, and boundary walls.
* **Revised Construction Costs:** The benchmark cost has been updated to ₹7000/MT for plain areas and ₹8000/MT for northeastern states.
* **Effective Interest Rates:** By combining NABARD’s refinance scheme with a 3% interest subvention under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), the effective interest rate for PACS is reduced to 1%.
* **Credit Guarantees:** The credit guarantee period under the AIF scheme for PACS has been extended from "2+5" years to "2+8" years.
**Infrastructure and Implementation Scope**
* **Diverse Facilities:** The plan entails the creation of godowns, custom hiring centers, processing units, Fair Price Shops, and cold chain infrastructure (cold storage, pack houses, and refrigeration vans).
* **Hiring Assurance:** The FCI and other agencies provide a uniform 9-year hiring assurance to guarantee the financial viability of the projects.
* **Project Execution:** Construction can be managed directly by PACS or through designated State agencies and Project Management Consultants (PMCs), provided they meet prescribed quality and design standards.
**Operational Process (Margdarshika)**
* **Identification:** State Cooperative Departments identify viable societies with adequate land.
* **Approval:** Proposals must be approved by the District Cooperative Development Committee (DCDC).
* **Financing:** Societies must submit a site-specific Detailed Project Report (DPR) and loan applications to the District Central Cooperative Bank (DCCB).
* **Timeline:** Actual construction is mandated to be completed within six months of the project grounding.
**Current Status (as of January 20, 2026)**
* **Scale:** 560 cooperative societies have been identified across the country.
* **Completion:** Construction has been completed in 120 societies, creating a total storage capacity of 72,702 MT.
* **Storage Gap:** Agencies have identified a total storage gap of 46.92 LMT across 378 districts.
**Impact Analysis**
**Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) / Cooperative Societies**
**Impact:** They gain access to modernized infrastructure, significantly cheaper credit (1%), and guaranteed long-term revenue through 9-year hiring assurances.
**Action Required:** Identify adequate land, prepare site-specific Detailed Project Reports (DPR), apply for loans/subsidies via DCCBs, and ensure construction is completed within the six-month mandate.
**State Cooperative Departments**
**Impact:** They serve as the primary facilitators for regional agricultural infrastructure development.
**Action Required:** Identify viable PACS/societies with available land and coordinate with the District Cooperative Development Committee (DCDC) for approvals.
**District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB)**
**Impact:** They act as the primary lending institutions for the scheme's infrastructure projects.
**Action Required:** Appraise and sanction loan applications and facilitate the disbursement of subsidies leveraged from schemes like AIF and AMI.
**Central/State Agencies (FCI, NAFED, NCCF, SWCs)**
**Impact:** These agencies secure long-term storage capacity to manage food grains and reduce storage shortages.
**Action Required:** Issue Hiring Assurance Letters to identified societies to guarantee project viability and identify storage gaps in their respective jurisdictions.
Key Entities Referenced
World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector: A pilot project aimed at creating decentralized scientific grain storage infrastructure (godowns, processing units, etc.) by converging multiple existing government schemes.
Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS): Village-level cooperative institutions identified as the primary entities for implementing the storage plan and establishing local agri-infrastructure.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF): A central government scheme leveraged under the plan to provide interest subvention and credit guarantees to PACS for infrastructure construction.
Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI): A scheme providing capital subsidies for foodgrain storage construction, with specific amendments for the plan to increase subsidy rates and reduce margin money.
Ministry of Cooperation: The primary central ministry responsible for the approval, oversight, and implementation of the Grain Storage Plan.
Ministry of Cooperation
World's largest food storage scheme for farmers
Posted On: 18 MAR 2026 5:31PM by PIB Delhi
In order to address the shortage of storage capacity for food grains in the country and creation of
decentralised scientific grain storage infrastructure, the Government, on 31st May, 2023, has approved the
“World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector”, which has been rolled out as a Pilot Project.
The Plan entails creation of various agri infrastructure including godowns, custom hiring centers,
processing units, Fair Price Shops, etc. at Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)/ other cooperative
societies level through convergence of various existing schemes of the Government of India (GoI), 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. Under the AIF Scheme the benefit of interest subvention is
given to the PACS against the loan taken for construction of godowns and under AMI Scheme 33%
subsidy is given for the construction of foodgrain storage. The Department of Agriculture and Farmers
Welfare has extended the credit guarantee under AIF Scheme from 2+5 to 2+8 years for PACS and also
made the following amendments under the AMI scheme:
Margin money requirement has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
The construction cost has been revised from ₹3000–3500/MT to ₹7000/MT for plain areas and from
₹4000/MT to ₹8000/MT for northeastern states.
The subsidy has been increased for PACS from 25% to 33.33% (from ₹875/MT to ₹2333/MT for plain
areas and from ₹1333.33/MT to ₹2666/MT for northeastern states).
For PACS, a provision has been made to provide an additional subsidy of 1/3 (one third) of the total
admissible subsidy for ancillary infrastructure such as internal roads, weighbridges, boundary walls, etc.
Further, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has also agreed to provide uniform hiring assurance for 9 years
to PACS/ other cooperative societies godowns under the Plan.
For the implementation of the plan a Margdarshika (Standard Operating Procedure) has also been prepared
and shared with all the stakeholders. As per the Margdarshika, the action plan for implementing the Grain
Storage Plan follows a structured, time-bound process with the State Cooperative Department identifying
viable PACS/ other cooperative societies equipped with adequate land. These identified PACS/ other
cooperative societies must be approved by the District Cooperative Development Committee (DCDC),
after which the Food Corporation of India (FCI)/ National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation
of India Ltd. (NAFED)/ National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF)/ State Food
Departments/ any other Central or State agency issue Hiring Assurance Letters to guarantee project
viability.
Following this, a site-specific Detailed Project Report (DPR) is prepared, and the cooperative society
submits loan and subsidy applications (leveraging schemes like AIF and AMI) to the District Central
Cooperative Bank (DCCB). Once the bank appraises and sanctions the loan, the project grounding takesplace, with the actual construction mandated to be completed within six months, ultimately handing over
the functional warehouse to the cooperative society to commence business activities.
The Plan also utilizes NABARD's special refinance scheme to significantly reduce the financial burden on
participating cooperatives. When combined with the 3% interest subvention available under the AIF, the
effective loan interest rate for PACS is reduced to 1% under World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan.
For the construction of the godowns under the Plan, there is built-in flexibility: construction can be
undertaken either directly by PACS or through designated State agencies/Project Management Consultants
(PMCs), provided they strictly adhere to the project's prescribed design, logo, and quality standards.
Agencies such as Food Corporation of India (FCI), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing
Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF)
and State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs) have identified 378 districts/ location across the country as
per their storage requirement which constitutes a total storage gap of 46.92 LMT and States/UTs
concerned have been requested for further identification of land in PACS and other Cooperative Societies.
So far, under the Grain Storage Plan, 560 cooperative societies have been identified and construction of
godowns has been completed in 120 cooperative societies across the country creating a total storage
capacity of 72,702 MT. State-wise details of the same are attached at Annexure – I.
Under the plan, PACS/ other cooperative societies can also establish cold chain infrastructure including
cold storage units, pack houses, refrigeration vans, etc. for supply of fruits and vegetables produced in the
villages under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture
(MIDH).
*****
Annexure-I
Status of Grain Storage Plan (as on 20.01.2026)
S.No State / Union Identified DPR Construction Capacity
Territory PACS/Cooperative Submitted Completed Created
Societies (MT)
1 Maharashtra 184 78 16 17,952
2 Odisha 19 17 0 0
3 Rajasthan 172 172 91 45,250
4 Gujarat 66 81 5 3,7505 Jharkhand 0 0 0 0
6 Haryana 30 11 0 0
7 Uttar Pradesh 25 24 1 1,500
8 Chhattisgarh 19 19 0 0
9 Assam 1 1 1 500
10 Tripura 1 1 1 250
11 Jammu & 2 1 0 0
Kashmir
12 Himachal 0 0 0 0
Pradesh
13 Telangana 1 1 1 500
14 Karnataka 1 1 1 1,000
15 Tamil Nadu 1 1 1 1,000
16 Uttarakhand 1 1 1 500
17 Madhya 1 1 1 500
Pradesh
18 Punjab 0 0 0 0
19 Nagaland 0 0 0 0
20 Meghalaya 0 0 0 0
21 Manipur 0 0 0 0
22 Arunachal 0 0 0 0
Pradesh
23 Bihar 36 16 0 0
24 Andhra 0 0 0 0
PradeshTotal 560 426 120 72,702
This information was given by Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah in a written
reply in Rajya Sabha.
*****
AK/AP
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