India is building the world’s largest grain storage network, and it runs through village-level cooperatives, not big central warehouses. This article covers the plan’s scale, its funding design, and how it is meant to stop farmers from selling crops in distress.
⏲ Timeline
1 Approval to Pilot, 2023-2024
- 31 May 2023 The Cabinet approved the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector. (Source: Ministry of Cooperation).
- 24 Feb 2024 PM Modi inaugurated the pilot phase, covering 11 PACS across 11 states. Those pilot godowns together created 9,750 metric tonnes of storage. (Source: Business Standard).
⚠ Must Know
2 The Plan’s Scale and Cost
- Target The plan aims to build 700 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of decentralised storage capacity within five years, at a cost of about ₹1.25 lakh crore. (Source: Business Standard).
- Why “World’s Largest” No other single cooperative-sector storage scheme, anywhere, targets this much capacity. It roughly matches India’s current total foodgrain buffer stock requirement.
- Reach The government is also working to strengthen 2 lakh multipurpose PACS, dairy, and fishery cooperatives across the country’s panchayats and villages, of which this storage push is one part.
3 What Gets Built at Each PACS
- Storage Silo-based godowns, sized at 50, 100, or 200 metric tonnes depending on the PACS. (Source: Organiser).
- Beyond Storage A Custom Hiring Centre for machinery rental, primary processing units for cleaning/sorting/drying grain, and a Fair Price Shop for local distribution.
- Roles Expand This turns each PACS into a multi-service hub: it can now store, procure, process, rent out machinery, and distribute food, not just lend money to farmers.
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4 Who Implements It, and Who Pays
- Implementer The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) implements the plan, with NABARD supporting through refinance. (Source: Organiser).
- Sweeter Subsidy Under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure scheme, the subsidy for PACS godowns was raised from 25% to 33.33%, and the margin money PACS must contribute was cut from 20% to 10%.
- Cheap Credit A special NABARD refinance facility carries a 3% interest subvention, bringing the effective loan rate for PACS down to just 1%. State and District Cooperative Banks are the primary lenders on the ground.
5 Governance, From Village to National Level
- National An Inter-Ministerial Committee and a National Level Coordination Committee steer the plan centrally.
- State and District State Cooperative Development Committees oversee rollout in each state, while District Cooperative Development Committees identify and approve which PACS get godowns.
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🌟 Great to Know
6 Why It Matters: Ending Distress Sales
- The Problem Without nearby storage, many farmers must sell their harvest immediately, often at low post-harvest prices, simply because they cannot hold onto the grain. (Source: Organiser).
- The Fix With a PACS godown nearby, farmers can store their produce and wait for a better price. They can also borrow against the stored grain itself, easing the immediate cash pressure that forces a quick sale.
7 A Real PACS Story: Nerpingali, Maharashtra
- The Site The Nerpingali PACS in Amravati, Maharashtra, built a 3,000-metric-tonne warehouse under the plan. (Source: Organiser).
- In Practice About 300 farmers stored roughly 32,000 soybean bags there, drawing ₹4.50 crore in advances against that stock instead of selling immediately.
- Payoff The PACS itself expects about ₹7.68 lakh a year in rental income and ₹54 lakh in interest income, while also creating local jobs.
📰 Current Affairs
8 Progress So Far, as of July 2026
- Identified 1,012 PACS have been identified for godown construction under the plan. (Source: Organiser).
- Completed Of those, 313 PACS have finished construction, creating over 1.80 lakh metric tonnes of storage capacity so far.
- Next Target More than 500 additional PACS have been identified for godown construction, with a target of completing that work by December 2026.
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