Warehousing in India Warehousing facilities are necessary to prevent the loss arising out of defective storage and also

to equip the farmers with a convenient instrument of credit. Both the Agricultural Finance SubCommittee (1945) and the Rural Banking Enquiry Committee (1950) emphasized the importance of ware housing as a method of promoting rural banking and finance in India. All India Rural Credit Survey Committee (1954) recommended a three tire system of warehousing: at the national level, state and district level, village and rural level. At present there are three main agencies in the public sector which are engaged in building large scale storage/warehousing capacity. They are: the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), and State Warehousing Corporation (SWC). FCI provides storage capacity for food grains. It has its own go downs and it also hires storage capacity from other sources such as CWC, SWC's, State Governments and private parties. In 1960-61, there were only 40 general warehouses in the countries with a total capacity of less than 0.1 million tonnes. By the end of 1988-89, the three public sector units has a storage capacity of nearly 32 million tonnes. Besides, public sector agencies, co-operatives have also constructed warehouses in rural areas for storage of their members' produce, for stocking of fertilizers and other inputs and consumer articles. To avoid unfair competition with the go downs of the co-operative marketing societies, the state warehousing corporations do not open warehouses at any place below the sub divisional level. By 1987-88, a total storage capacity of over 10 million tonnes in the co-operative sector was available. 1. Kinds of warehouses There are broadly speaking four kinds of warehouses.They are: a. private warehouses which are usually maintained by joint-stock companies, firms and individuals; b. Duty-paid public ware houses which are maintained by dock authorities or port trust authorities at port c. Bonded warehouses which are maintained either by dock authorities or by the Government and d. licensed warehouses which are private warehouses run by co-operative societies or by private agencies, after obtaining license from the Government.

2. Benefits of the warehouses The following are some of the benefits of the warehouses. a. It gives withholding power to the agriculturist to tide over difficulties and helps them to secure better prices for their produce.

b. It gives purchasing power to traders. c. It tends to cushion the price fluctuation and stabilize prices as it equates supply to demand. d. It facilitates future trading. e. It plays a very important role in implementing the agricultural price policy of the Government f. It obviates the need for unnecessary cross-transport. g. Huge wastages which occur owing to improper storage of agricultural produce will be minimized if warehousing develops on a large scale. h. Warehouses render various subsidiary services, such as sorting and packing commodities for shipment, cleaning and drying goods and preparing them for the market, acting as forwarding agents for exporters of good, purchasing goods on behalf of clients, and collecting and disseminating marketing intelligence.

More on Agricultural Marketing Importance and Objectives of Agricultural Marketing in India Facilities Needed for Agricultural Marketing Inadequacies of Present Marketing System Characteristics of Agricultural Products Methods of Sale and Marketing Agencies Agricultural Marketing in India Improvement of Agricultural Marketing System Cooperative Marketing in India Warehousing in India Ideal Marketing System Scientific Marketing of Farm Products 3. Progress Storage and warehousing facilities for agricultural crops on a commercial basis are available both in the public and the private sectors. The public sector dominates and accounts for a significantly large share of the total capacity available in the economy. The main institutional agencies providing these facilities are summarized here as Central and State Warehousing Corporations, the Food Corporation of India and the cooperatives. The Central Warehousing Corporation was set up in 1962 to do the following functions: a. acquire and build go downs and warehouses at suitable places, b. arrange facilities for the transport of agricultural produce .and inputs, c. subscribe to the share capital of State Warehousing Corporations, and d. act as agent of the Government for the purpose of purchase, sale, storage and distribution of agricultural produce and crops.

The State Warehousing Corporations have been set-up at places of state and district importance. Their functions are the same within a state as those of CWC at the national level.