Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal on Monday said that the agriculture sector will be the foundational pillar, spearheading the nation towards becoming ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.

Addressing the launch ceremony of ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ (Digital Gateway) of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) in New Delhi, he thanked the farmers for securing the lives of millions of Indians and said that the ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ initiative with the help of technology will ease the farmers’ warehousing logistics and aid the farmers in receiving fair prices for their produce.

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Mr Goyal announced that the security deposit charges at WDRA registered warehouses will soon be reduced to encourage more farmers, especially small farmers, to utilize the warehouses and enhance their income. He said that the farmers stocking their produce at these warehouses would need to pay only 1 per cent security deposit instead of earlier 3 per cent.

“Digital Gateway initiative is an important stepping stone in our effort to make farming attractive,” he said. He noted that ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ with its no collateral, extra security deposit policy can prevent distress sale by farmers who often have to sell their entire harvest at cheaper rates due to poor post-harvest storage opportunities.

Mr Goyal said that the warehouses under WDRA are well monitored, highly rated and are equipped with infrastructure that will protect the farm produce and lead to farmers’ welfare.

The Minister pressed for mandatory registration of warehouses utilised by Food Corporation of India (FCI) across the states under WDRA and preparation of a roadmap for state warehouses to be infrastructure-ready.

Elaborating on the ‘‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ platform, Mr Goyal said that the initiative with its simplified digital process can ease the procedure of farmers’ storage at any registered WDRA warehouse for a period of 6 months at 7 per cent interest per annum.

He hailed the WDRA initiative of providing an online platform for warehouse registration that has seen significant increase year-on-year and set a target of 1 lakh warehouses to be registered on the portal. He noted that last year 1500 warehouses were registered.

The minister emphasised that with the ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ and e-NAM, farmers will be able to utilise the technology of an interconnected market which benefits them above and beyond selling their produce to the Government at Minimum Support Price (MSP). He said that the government’s procurement through MSPs has increased 2.5 times over the last decade.