)
As India grapples to cobble up adequate funds to start the ambitious National Food Security Programme (NFSP), data shows that a staggering Rs 44,000 crore worth of foodgrains, fruits and vegetables is lost every year due to want to adequate storage infrastructure and proper warehousing and transportation facilities.
Informing this in the Rajya Sabha today, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said that the value of annual wastage of fruits and vegetables was estimated at Rs 13,309 crore. However, if the wastage value of rice, wheat, cereals and others are taken into account, it would go up to Rs 44,000 crore a year.
He said government has already initiated various steps to encourage creation of additional storage capacity and complimented certain states, without naming them, for showing "lot of interests".
Pawar said the Saumitra Chaudhuri Committee, constituted by the Planning Commission in 2012, has indicated 61.3 million tonnes of coal storage requirement in the country against the present capacity of around 29 million tonnes.
"The present gap is around 32 million tonnes," Pawar said. Government provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 50% of the total cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works in general areas and at the rate of 75% in difficult areas, including northeastern states, for creation of cold chain infrastructure.
The ceiling is, however, at Rs 10 crore. Pawar said investment of FDI in retail was expected to help in developing back-end cold storage infrastructure.
However, efforts of the government to develop such infrastructure through its various programmes would continue.
