The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) today hailed the West Bengal government's order making accreditation mandatory for warehouses where it would keep agricultural products.
NABARD Chief General Manager TS Raji Gain said the order would do good to the farmers as well as the bank.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session on 'Agriculture Financing in West Bengal: Some New Perspectives' organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.
"The West Bengal government has issued an order that all the warehouses where it proposes to keep its agricultural produces has to be accredited," Gain said.
"This will not only do good to the farmers also will be good for us," she added.
West Bengal does not have sufficient cold storages and warehousing and the gap between total requirement and the existing one was huge, the NABARD official stated.
"Storage is an issue in West Bengal. We don't have sufficient cold storages in the state as well as warehousing. The total requirement is 53 lakh MT and the gap is of 12 lakh MT in warehousing excluding the cold storage," she said.
"The criteria is any warehouse with a capacity of 1000 MT and that has availed government subsidy should get themselves accredited... It's compulsory," she said.
Farmers, on keeping their agricultural products in an accredited warehouse would get a negotiable warehouse receipt, that would help them get loans from banks, she said.
