NABARD to double Concessional Lending towards building Warehouses in Punjab

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on 9 April 2012 declared its intent to double its concessional lending towards building new warehouses for food grain storage to Rs. 500 crore in Punjab. Lending for creation of new storage godowns is to be doubled to Rs. 500 crore in Punjab under NABARD Warehousing (Refinance) Scheme 2012.

The NABARD Warehousing (Refinance) Scheme 2012 was launched with an objective of creating new storage space in order to facilitate distribution of food grain to poor families under Centre's proposed Food Security Act. Under this scheme, an interest subvention is also to be provided to private entrepreneurs at a rate of 1.5 per cent on timely completion of the projects and repayment of loan.

NABARD’s announcement followed the Centre’s decision to raise the allocation under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund exclusively for creation of scientific warehouses for storing food grain from Rs.2000 crore to Rs. 5000 crore in the Budget 2012-13.
Refinance lending institution NABARD's Punjab office extended financial support of Rs. 245 crore in 2011-12 to commercial banks at concessional rate of interest of eight per cent for the setting up of 6.75 lakh tonne of new warehousing capacities.

The Centre allocated about 50 lakh tonne of new storage capacities for Punjab to prevent wastage of wheat and rice in the wake of inadequate storage capacities in the State. Punjab suffers from a severe shortage of storage space. Punjab still faces shortage of 40-45 lakh tonne of food grain against the present capacity of 100.6 lakh tonne of covered space and 105 lakh tonne of Covered Area Plinth (CAP).