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M.R. Subramani

Chennai, Aug. 14 Mr Pradeep Singhal, President of the UP Roller Flour Mills Association, is one of those who lead by example.

As an entrepreneur keen on modernisation, he set up a 3,000-tonne silo on his flour mill compound in Aligarh a few years ago. It has helped him produce quality flour.

Seeing his success, a few others have also come forward to set up silos at their units. “The mill next to us has set up at 1,500-tonne silo,” Mr Singhal says.

Ask him about the economics of silos and he says: “It is beneficial from all angles. We have foodgrain storage losses running into crores of rupees. By going in for silo storage, we can save that much wastage.”

The Food and Agricultural Organisation attributes the foodgrains wastage to poor storage at 8 per cent. A question put up to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by way of a Right to Information system got a reply that 13 lakh tonnes of foodgrains running into crores of rupees had gone waste in the last decade.

Down South, too, a couple of mills have come up with smaller silos basically to improve the quality of the flour they produce. These mills buy wheat with varying moisture content. Putting them in silo helps in reducing the moisture content and attaining uniform quality of the produce.

The FCI has now woken up to the reality of the silo advantage and launched a pilot project that is being implemented by Adani Agri Logistics Ltd on a build, own and operate basis.

The silos have been built with steel imported from the US.

According to Mr Munishwar Vasudeva of Adani Agri Logistics, the project has two circuits. The first one is with a base depot at Moga in Punjab having a storage capacity of two lakh tonnes and field depots at Chennai, Coimbatore and Bangalore with storage capacities of 25,000 tonnes each. The second one has a base depot at Kaithal in Haryana with a capacity of two lakh tonnes and field depots at Navi Mumbai (50,000 tonnes) and Hoogly (25,000 tonnes).

When FCI floated a global tender, Adani won it for quoting the lowest bid. “Our bid was Rs 2,415 a tonne. The charges, according to the service contract with FCI, are guaranteed on four lakh tonnes of wheat handling, storage and transportation at seven depots across the country. It is almost like a complete supply chain management for FCI for 20 years,” Mr Vasudeva says.

FCI procures the wheat and delivers it at the base depot, according to agreed quality norms. From thereon, Adani takes on the responsibility till the wheat is delivered in the consuming State from one of the five field depots.

“Wheat is bought through conventional systems from the mandis. Fresh initiatives are in place to encourage the farmers to bring the produce directly to the base depots,” he says.

Adani Agri Logistics has spent Rs 640 crore for the pilot project. This includes setting up the silos, sidings for the silos, buying special railway wagons to transport wheat from base depots and other equipment, including computers and modern monitors imported from Germany.

“The entire operation is carried out in the bulk form, thus minimising losses. Transportation is through specially designed covered wagons and four rakes comprising 49 wagons were bought by us especially for this project. Also we have an automatic system that will unload one rake within five hours,” Mr Vasudeva says.

The pilot project has aroused the curiosity of the State governments and the Centre is now ready to support the States if they come forward with such ventures.

“We have showcased the advantage and economics of the project. The silos have to stretch their single usage to multiple so that there is enough expansion capability within the existing infrastructure,” adds Mr Vasudeva.

More Stories on : Foodgrains | Storage | New Projects

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