India’s ambition to build the world’s largest decentralized grain storage network in the cooperative sector has begun to take visible shape, with early results from the nationwide Pilot Project confirming both the scale of the challenge and the momentum of reform. Approved on 31 May 2023, the initiative marks the Government’s most ambitious effort yet to close the country’s storage deficit by empowering Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and cooperatives to build modern, multi-purpose agri-infrastructure—godowns, custom hiring centres, processing units and Fair Price Shop linkages—through a convergence of flagship schemes such as AIF, AMI, SMAM and PMFME.

The Pilot surfaced systemic constraints that had long constrained rural storage expansion: outdated AMI construction cost norms, uneven subsidies across regions, inadequate support for ancillary infrastructure, the limited balance-sheet strength of PACS, and a lack of standardized DPR templates that often stalled lending decisions. Perhaps the single biggest friction point was the difficulty in securing hiring assurances from State agencies—an institutional gap that inhibited banks from sanctioning loans for storage projects. These lessons have since catalysed the most comprehensive redesign of grain-storage policy architecture in a decade.

Over the past year, structural reforms have been rolled out across AIF and AMI to ease capital access, derisk investments and improve project viability for cooperatives. The loan repayment period under AIF has been extended from 2+5 to 2+8 years, giving PACS longer breathing room to stabilise cashflows. AMI norms underwent a complete overhaul: margin money requirements have been halved to 10 percent; construction cost benchmarks have been updated from Rs 3,000–3,500 per MT to Rs 7,000 per MT in plain areas and from Rs 4,000 per MT to Rs 8,000 per MT in the Northeast; and subsidy support for PACS has been elevated to 33.33 percent, more than doubling the per-MT financial backing.

For the first time, subsidies have also been extended to ancillary infrastructure—internal roads, weighbridges, boundary walls—ensuring godowns can operate as fully functional, commercially viable units rather than incomplete standalone structures. To eliminate procedural ambiguity, the Centre has issued a detailed Margdarshika, model DPRs and standard documents to all States, giving the entire network a uniform implementation playbook. In a critical breakthrough, the Food Corporation of India has agreed to provide a uniform nine-year hiring assurance for all PACS godowns of 2,500 MT and above, unlocking credit flow that had stalled during the Pilot phase.

As the initiative enters its scale-up phase, States have been strongly encouraged to transform PACS into multipurpose agri-service hubs by integrating backward and forward linkages—processing units, custom hiring centres, procurement interfaces and Fair Price Shop operations—around the newly constructed godowns. The scope of the Mission has also been widened beyond PACS to include Cooperative Societies, Cooperative Federations and Multi-State Cooperative Societies, significantly expanding execution bandwidth and accelerating the build-out of decentralized storage across the country.

As of 15 November 2025, the programme has identified 704 PACS and cooperatives for the construction of modern storage facilities, with 304 DPRs submitted, 96 godowns completed, and 59,702 MT of storage capacity created.

Rajasthan leads with 71 completed sites accounting for 35,250 MT, followed by Maharashtra’s initial 16 sites adding 17,952 MT. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh have begun commissioning completed facilities, while several others—including Gujarat and Odisha—are progressing rapidly through the DPR and approval stages. The data reflects a sharp uptick in on-ground activity compared to the early Pilot period, underscoring the impact of the recent policy corrections.

The Mission’s early successes reaffirm the viability of PACS-level godowns as integrated rural economic hubs—facilitating procurement, supporting Fair Price Shops and hosting Custom Hiring Centres while reducing post-harvest losses and improving market access for farmers. With foundational reforms now in place and multiple States moving from planning to execution, the country’s decentralized storage grid is set to expand at an unprecedented pace, marking a decisive shift toward a more resilient, cooperative-driven agri-logistics architecture.