NABARD created a new Department called ‘Department of Storage and Marketing (DSM)’ on 03 September 2012 to administer the funds allocated by Government of India for supporting the creation of warehouse infrastructure for scientific storage of food grains in the country.

Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF)

In the Union Budget of 2011-12, a special window under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) was announced under Tranche XVII with a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore to provide dedicated funds for the creation of a robust warehousing infrastructure in the country.

This was continued in the Union Budget 2012-13, with an allocation of Rs. 5000 crore under RIDF - XVIII. In order to provide a pointed focus for extending financial assistance to public and private players in the warehousing sector by NABARD, GoI had instituted a separate fund called Warehouse Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of Rs.5000 crore during 2013-14, which was continued during 2014-15 also with a further corpus of Rs 5000 crore. No further addition was made to the corpus. The eligible activities include various storage infrastructure for agricultural commodities, including warehouses, silos, agri-logistic parks, storage infrastructure in market yards & food parks and cold chain activities like pre-cooling units, cold storage, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores, reefer vans, bulk coolers, Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) units, chilling infrastructure, etc.

Food Processing Fund (FPF)

With a view to promote food processing industry in the organised sector on a cluster basis, GoI instituted the Food Processing fund (FPF) with a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore during 2014-15 in NABARD for providing affordable credit for setting up of designated food parks notified by Ministry of food Processing industries (MOFPI), GoI and establishing food processing units therein.

Core functions:

A. Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF)

Provide support for creation of scientific storage infrastructure in rural areas

• Provide credit and non-credit support for Green field projects of public as well as private sector entities
• For renovation/repairs/ modernisation of existing warehouses
• For upgrading infrastructure/ amenities in the existing warehouses of Primary Agriculture Co-operative Societies (PACS) and other Co-operative Societies to make them storage worthy.
• Formulate policies/strategies for fulfilling the gap in storage infrastructure in different parts of the country.
• Assess the existing storage capacity and estimate the requirement and potential for storage infrastructure in different states/ districts in the country.

Provide support for accreditation of warehouses in rural areas

• Collaborate with Collateral Management Companies (CMCs), State Governments/ State Owned Corporations for upgrading physical infrastructure of small warehouse owners, including PACS and other cooperatives, and leveraging their warehouse assets for increasing their income (with grant assistance for PACS warehouse accreditation).
• Sensitize and train PACS staff/ warehousemen and cold storage owners and encourage and facilitate accreditation/ registration of their warehouses.
• Map and identify the existing warehouses/ cold storage in rural areas across the country for updating the Warehouse Directory with assistance from NABARD and Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA).

Provide post-harvest liquidity to farmers

• Undertake suitable interventions to popularise storage of produce by farmers, avoiding distress sale and giving better price realisation
• Promote and popularize issue of Negotiable Warehousing Receipts (NWR) by the accredited warehouses/ cold storages

Improve access of farmers to wider markets

• Engage with commodity exchanges, both future and spot, for developing suitable framework/ contracts to enable farmers to trade on these exchanges (National Agriculture Markets or NAM).
• Evolve a mechanism which would ensure aggregation of the produce of farmers to facilitate trading on the exchanges.
• Identify suitable entities (like a cooperative society, a producers' organization, NGO, CMCs or any other village level/ community based organization) that could work as aggregators for the farmers.

Support capacity building initiatives of stakeholders

• Organise training/ sensitisation programs for NABARD Officers, both at the Head Office and Regional Offices, with a view to acquaint them with various facets of agricultural storage and marketing.

B. Food Processing Fund (FPF)

Provide support for creating infrastructure and promoting Food Processing industries:

• Provide credit for establishing infrastructure in Designated Food Parks and processing units therein.
• Formulate policies/ strategies for augmenting the processing infrastructure, creating awareness for value addition, and developing forward linkages for the farmers' produce directly.
• Promote modernization of existing processing units in the designated food parks resulting in technology upgradation, automation, increase in efficiency, improvement in product quality, reduction in cost etc.
• To assist Ministry of Food Processing industries (MOFPI), Government of India, in the effective implementation of Mega Food Park Scheme, Scheme for Creation / Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities (CEFPPC), Scheme for Creation of Agro Processing Clusters and Scheme for Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure by being a member in the respective Inter Ministerial Approval Committees.

Broad achievements at a national level:

A. Warehouse Infrastructure Fund

The brief details of sanctions and disbursements from the fund (30th April 2024) are given below:

• Total allocation: Rs. 10000 crore
• Total sanctions : Rs. 9452.61 crore
• Total number of projects sanctioned: 8162
• Designed Capacity:13.74 million MT
• Cumulative disbursement: Rs. 9045.15 crore

A total of 6243 projects are completed with a capacity creation of 9.96 million MT

B. Food Processing Fund (FPF)

Following are the details of the sanctions made from the fund and the processing infrastructure created therein:

• Total Allocation: Rs. 2,000 crore
• Total number of projects sanctioned (as on 31st May 2024): 41
• Term Loan sanctioned (31st May 2024): Rs. 1191.57 crore.
• Loan disbursed (31st May 2024): Rs. 776.27 crore
• An area of about 1370.03 acres would be developed in 14 Mega Food Parks (MFP), 09 Agro Processing Clusters (APC), 15 Individual Food Processing Units, and 03 Industrial Food Parks projects which act as Central Processing Centres (CPCs).
• The 14 CPCs of MFP Projects would be supported by 45 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) and several Collection Centres (CCs) to be established at suitable places in the catchment zone of the respective mega food parks. These centres will help in sourcing of agricultural produce directly from the farmers by the processing units to be established in the mega food parks, thereby creating a direct marketing access to the user industry.

These projects when completed would result in providing diversified and much needed core and processing infrastructure, which will include:

• 2,52,200 MT of dry warehouses for storing raw material and finished goods (for non-perishable products).
• 58,500 MT of silos for bulk storing of agricultural raw material.
• 97,610 MT of cold storage capacity for storing perishable finished products.
• 11,350 MT of freezer capacity for storing finished products requiring freezing temperatures.
• Individual quick freezing capacity of 9.50 MT per hour for producing Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) fruit and vegetable products.
• Sorting and grading capacity of 142.50 MT of fruits and vegetables per hour.
• Controlled ripening capacity of 1895.00 MT.
• Pulping and aseptic packing of 39.05 MT of fruit pulps per hour.

On-going projects and schemes

Warehouse Infrastructure Fund

The Fund for supporting creation of infrastructure for storage of agricultural commodities and marketing infrastructure in APMCs is fully committed.

Food Processing Fund

The Special Fund to make available affordable credit to agro-processing units being designated as Food Parks is available during 2023-24 also.

Additional Information

The links for detailed information on the schemes of the department are given below:

A. Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF)

• Operational Guidelines - Warehouse Infrastructure Fund
• List of Projects Sanctioned under Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (as on 31st May 2024)
• Cumulative Sanctions and Disbursements under WIF 2013-14 and WIF 2014-15 (31st May 2024)

B. Food Processing Fund (FPF)

• Operational Guidelines
• Loan Application Format for the Mega Food Park Projects to be implemented by State Agencies
• Checklist of Documents to be submitted in respect of the Mega Food Park Projects of SPVs
• Loan Application Format for the Mega Food Park Projects to be implemented by SPVs
• Checklist of Documents to be submitted in respect of the Mega Food Park Projects of State Agencies
• Loan application format for the Individual Processing Units in Designated Food Park
• Checklist of documents for the Individual Processing Units in the Designated Food Park
• List of loan and security related formats in respect of Mega Food Parks financed with grant assistance from MoFPI
• List of loan and security related formats in respect of the Individual Processing Units in the Designated Food Park.
• Consolidated List of 313 Designated Food Parks as on 09.03.2022 notified by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries
• Food Processing Fund Sanctioned projects as on 31st May 2024
• Application for Term Loan for Establishing an Agro-Processing Cluster
• Checklist of documents to be submitted Along with the Loan Application Agro Processing Cluster Projects

Contact Information

Shri. B Uday Bhaskar
Chief General Manager
NABARD, Head Office Mumbai
8th Floor, 'D' Wing, C-24, 'G' Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East)
Mumbai 400 051
Tel: (91) 022- 68120051
Tel: (91) 022-26539238
E-mail Address: dsm@nabard.org

Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)