Telangana eyes SHG-run mega silos for paddy storage

Civil Supplies Corporation told to plan silos in sizes of five–10 lakh tonnes of scientific storage capacity

metro india news I hyderabad

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has directed the Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation to prepare a comprehensive plan for establishing state-of-the-art grain silos with an additional storage capacity of five lakh to 10 lakh metric tonnes involving the women SHGs in building and operating them on a large scale.

Reviewing the Corporation’s affairs with senior officials, the Minister said Telangana’s grain-storage infrastructure must keep pace with the phenomenal expansion of paddy cultivation and production in the State.

Improved irrigation support, expansion of the cultivable area and procurement at the Minimum Support Price have resulted in a steady year-on-year increase in paddy arrivals. 

Consequently, the requirement for safe, scientific and strategically located storage facilities has also been growing rapidly.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said conventional godowns alone would not be sufficient to meet Telangana’s emerging requirements. The State must progressively develop a modern storage network incorporating automated handling, scientific preservation, mechanised movement, digital monitoring and protection against moisture, pests and other storage-related losses.

He suggested examining models under which women’s Self-Help Groups, village-level institutions and the Civil Supplies Corporation itself could participate in developing, managing or operating the modern storage facilities.

The proposals should clearly define the respective roles of the Corporation, SHGs and other participating agencies. Suitable financing and operational models should be evolved to ensure that the facilities remain financially viable and professionally managed.

“The State’s storage infrastructure should be planned not merely for the next procurement season but for the requirements of the coming decades,” the Minister said.

Telangana’s storage facilities are presently spread across the Civil Supplies Corporation, Telangana State Warehousing Corporation, Central Warehousing Corporation, Food Corporation of India, Agricultural Market Committees and privately owned investor godowns.

The State Warehousing Corporation alone owns about six lakh metric tonnes of capacity, while substantial additional space has to be arranged seasonally through other agencies and hired facilities.

The pressure on the system is evident from the scale of recent procurement operations.

The Civil Supplies Corporation prepared to procure as much as 90 lakh metric tonnes in the Rabi season this year, while immediate storage arrangements of around 12 lakh metric tonnes were made as part of the season’s operational plan.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said the increasing gap between the enormous scale of procurement and the availability of permanent scientific storage underlined the urgency of creating additional capacity.