September 22, 2014
NABARD praises Bengal`s efforts in warehousing
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 said that the order would do good to the farmers as well as the bank.
The West Bengal government has issued an order that all the warehouses where it proposes to keep its agricultural produces have to be accredited.
West Bengal did not have sufficient cold storage and warehousing and the gap between total requirement and the existing one was huge. The new government decided to set up cold storage in every block. The total requirement is 53 lakh MT and the gap is of 12 lakh MT in warehousing excluding the cold storage.
Now the new criteria is any warehouse with a capacity of 1000 MT and that has availed government subsidy should get themselves accredited and It has been made compulsory.
Farmers, on keeping their agricultural products in an accredited warehouse would get a negotiable warehouse receipt, that would help them get loans from banks.
