Ramesh Chand, Member Secretary of Niti Aayog
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RAMAKRISHNA G
Niti Aayog Member Ramesh Chand has advised the captains of the private sector to share their suggestion on enhancing private sector participation in foodgrain storage with a panel led by former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.
He was reacting to the observation of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry that India needs comprehensive policy reforms such as rationalisation of State-level taxes and levies and creation of level playing fields between public and private operators to enhance private sector participation in foodgrain storage.
Addressing a conference on warehousing in New Delhi Thursday, Chand said Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently constituted a committee led by Rajiv Gauba to identify the bottlenecks in attracting private investment. “Any suggestion where the government needs to make changes in the warehousing sector can be brought to the notice of the panel,” Chand said.
Warehouse market study
The PM in August tasked a panel under former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba to speed up the reform agenda, particularly of “non-financial regulatory reforms”.
He released a study titled “Agriculture Warehouse Market in India 2025–2030”, prepared by the industry chamber, that has projected India to face 69 million tonnes (mt) of scientific storage deficit by 2030 s due to rising food grain production, and its warehousing market may expand from an estimated ₹37,336 crore in 2025-26 to ₹43,953 crore by 2030-31.
“While government schemes like PEG, AIF, and PPP silo projects have strengthened the policy environment, further reforms in contracts, land access, and financing are needed to fully unlock private investment,” the industry chamber said in the report.
Chand said while the average growth in agriculture production is 4.5 per cent in the past decade, the requirement of warehouse for marketable surplus is growing at a much higher rate, which indicates the potential for investment opportunities in the sector.
He said as average per capita consumption of cereals has come down to 9.5 kg from 11 kg in last few years, it has also thrown warehousing opportunities in other sectors like pulses, milk and horticulture products. The agriculture sector can easily maintain a 4 per cent growth rate over the next 10 years, he added.
Warehouse infrastructure
Stressing on the need to enhance the warehouse infrastructure in the country, he also said that food losses are not high in India, contrary to public perception. “I shared that in the UN conference, that in milk, our loss is only 0.5 per cent, and it is the most perishable commodity anyway,” he said.
But, he said that a large component of the current food losses is preventable, and there is a big incentive for investment in warehouses.
The Niti Aayog member released a study on “Foodgrain Warehouse Market in India” and suggested PHD Chamber to prepare a similar report on cold storage.
He said regulations play an important role in influencing investment decision on warehousing. “If the law of the land is that one cannot put more than a fixed quantity in the storage, why will one invest in creating warehouse,” he asked but clarified that after the roll back of the farm laws, the Essential Commodities law has been sparingly used.
“You will find that over the last few years, particularly after we did not succeed in getting the three farm laws, the need to invoke the Essential Commodities Act has been lesser and lesser,” he said but agreed that such law is a hindrance in attracting investment in warehousing sector.
Published on November 20, 2025