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Dhimant Bhatt

Mumbai , May 3

THE Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) has initiated steps to offer a package of value-added services to the farmers from farms to market level.

Under various schemes, the corporation has been educating farmers in areas nearby CWC warehouses located in Maharashtra and Goa on aspects of agricultural practices such as packaging, grading, handling, storage and preservation of farm produce, agricultural loans through banks, disinfestations service and price awareness programmes for farmers through commodity exchanges.

Under the Farmers' Extension Service Scheme, technical personnel visit various villages and impart training to the farmers for adopting scientific techniques so as to avoid post-harvest losses. It provides such services free of cost. CWC educated 10,220 farmers in Maharashtra during 2004-05 fiscal.

It has also started an extensive training programme for its personnel and other associates such as the State Warehousing Corporations, Markfed, Civil Supplies bodies, Commodity Boards, APMCs and Shetkari Sanghatana to popularise standard practices of warehousing such as packaging, handling and storage/preservation.

CWC has been providing disinfestations services at the doorstep of farmers and users. It has so far provided its pest control services to airports, banks and institutes, telephone exchanges.

"During 2004-05, we earned Rs 86.29 lakh on disinfestation services against pro-rata target of Rs 60 lakh in the region,'' an official said.

CWC has started a training programme related to price information for the farmers through commodities futures trading. It has begun to create a database of the farmers, particularly in areas surrounding its warehouses in all the districts of the State. The database would be made available to some banks so that they can approach the farmers for loans during the harvesting season.

The CWC Mumbai region has entered into special arrangements with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank for making available bank loans to farmers against pledge of warehouse receipts for goods deposited in the region. The scheme is in operations at a number of centres during the current harvesting season. It introduces farmers to the banks during the harvesting season for financial help by way of agricultural loans under single window system.

"The CWC is actively considering more banks for such tie-ups. It includes Yes Bank, UTI, IDBI, SBI, Corporation Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank," said an official.

Apart from this, CWC is expanding its warehousing capacities in Maharashtra and Goa by adding new capacities and expanding present capacities. It is also in process to develop and built new warehouses at Railway yards and good terminals.

During 2004-05, CWC's storage and capacity increased to 11.11 lakh tonnes as compared to 8.66 lakh tonnes. It has added 11 new warehouses in the region during the period. Thus, overall occupancy rate was 73 per cent annually.

It has started a number of new centres for FCI on an exclusive basis. It includes Bhandara (3,600 tonnes), Khamgaon (1845 tonnes), Latur 6,000 tonnes), Parbani (5,925 tonnes) and Karad (3,852 tonnes).

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