As per the study report of Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), an Institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), based on survey conducted during the year 2013-14, the annual harvest and post-harvest losses of major food grains ranges from 4.65 to 5.99%. The details are given in Annexure-I.

Ministry of Agriculture and farmers Welfare through Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is involved in the capacity development of farmers and extension personnel to update their knowledge and skills on modern technologies including scientific storage of foodgrains at farm level.

Government is also promoting scientific storage facilities as per the specification prescribed by Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) in rural areas of the country through the scheme of “Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)”, which is a sub-scheme under the Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM).  AMI scheme is a back ended capital subsidy scheme in which rate of subsidy provided is 25% and 33.33% based on the category of eligible beneficiary and provided on capital cost of the project.  Assistance under the sub-scheme is available to Individual, Group of farmers/growers, Registered Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs) etc. Since inception of scheme and Upto 31.03.2019, a total of 38,964 storage infrastructure projects (Godowns), with storage capacity of 65.54 million MT were sanctioned under AMI sub-scheme (erstwhile Grameen Bhandaran Yojana) of ISAM.

To meet any contingency situation, a strategic reserve of 20 Lakh MT of rice and 30 Lakh MT of wheat is maintained at national level at different Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, out of the foodgrains procured at MSP.

This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Danve Raosaheb Dadarao in the Rajya Sabha today.

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 APS/AS

Annexure-I

The details on wastage of major crops at national level as per the survey conducted during the year 2013-14.

Source:  Report on Assessment of Quantitative Harvest and Post-Harvest Losses of Major Crops and Commodities in India. ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Post-Harvest Technology, Ludhiana.

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