Agri Logistics Solutions

 

Veerprabhu Marketing Ltd. – a company of Cosmopolitan Group has been assigned the responsibility of procurement of paddy in the state of West Bengal in its four clusters VIZ. Burdwan, Bankura, Siliguri, and Dinajpur; as well as four clusters of the state of Uttar Pradesh viz. Allahabad, Kaushambhi, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur.

On an experimental basis, Government of India has introduced this scheme in selectively few states only for the procurement of paddy and depending on the level of success the scheme will be extended to other states as well and max cover a variety of crop. Veerprabhu Marketing Ltd. is one of the only three private companies that have been entrusted with this responsibility.

The government also has further plans to privatize the storage and distribution of major cash crops and they will be finalising their strategy shortly depending on the success they achieve during the initial stage of implementation.

Promoters/ Corporate Profile:

Veerprabhu Marketing Ltd. is a public limited closely held company promoted by Mr. S.K. Jain and the family holds the entire equity. The company got incorporated on 7th February,1983. The registered office is located at 30 Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Block C, 2nd floor, Kolkata – 700016.

The promoters are all professionally qualified and have adequate industry exposure both in lndia & abroad. The journey started with export of commodities and subsequently diversified into providing logistic support to agriculture and commodity sector.The company also diversified and became one of the most important channel partners of Tata Motors, covering the entire state of Rajasthan. Due to the consistent performance of the company and at the instance of Tata Motors, the company’s area of operation got extended to the various districts of Assam as well.

The Process:

This is a well scattered operation demanding standard systems and procedure. The process starts with the procurement of paddy from farmers and it ends with delivery of processed rice duly packed to FCI. The objective behind is to ensure timely assured payment of the minimum support price to the farmers and to eliminate intermediaries to minimise distortion.

Under the scheme, payment to farmers is made electronically within 48 hours of the time of procurement. FCI always keeps a check on such issues and there is always strict supervision of whatever we do to protect the larger interest of the farmers
It must be within the policy framework of the government of India to extend the privatization of activities in this particular sector and they are focusing the areas of storage and distribution of food grains. Close proximity of farmers with the private operators can be effectively exploited for the distribution of other ancillary products to the farmers and this must be under the active consideration of the government.

Improving the efficiency in procurement, storage and distribution are the key factors which prompted the government to privatize this activity.

Role of NABARD/ RRB/ Central and State cooperative banks for successful implementation of privatisation of Paddy Procurement Plan (PPP):

• Extension of banking network
• Extension of farmer’s network
• Payment to farmers through electronic transfer
• Use of KCC for farmers registration
• Participate in FLP
• Use of FLC
• Utilise good offices of district development managers
• Extend loan to farmers
• Opening of crop procurement centres
• Use the organization’s network for disbursement of subsidy and distribution of other ancillary products

Role of Government Administrative Machineries for smooth implementation of the plan:

• The scheme has been introduced by the Government of lndia exclusively for the benefit of farmers and therefore it is extremely important that the salient features of the scheme are spelt out to all the concerned departments at all levels with the objective that it should percolate down to the level of farmers and they should not opt for any other options which are detrimental to their interest.

• Active participation of state administrative machineries in the farmers learning programme which are being planned jointly with RRB/NABARD/Central coop bank /state coop bank.State Administrative Machineries will be required to provide admistrative support to overcome resistance from interested quarters who had been operating parallel systems of procurement jeopardising the interest of the farmers.

• Close involvement of the ministry of food is extremely important for the successful implementation of the plan.

• Gaining farmer’s confidence is the key factor for the success of the scheme which is impossible without direct involvement of DM/ADM/DC/FOOD MINISTRY.

• The farmers club should play very important role to popularise the scheme.

• Direct involvement of FCI officials is extremely important to popularise the scheme.

• DDM should be directed to conduct joint programmes with the company to explain the farmers about the benefits of the scheme.

Challenges:

• Well scattered operations across the stage will always demand large cost effective network which is not easy to establish and capital intensive.

• More than 50% of rice mills are not operating in West Bengal which reduces the available processing capacity. They also face acute working capital problems.

• Total elimination of intermediaries to create a congenial working environment may be difficult in today’s context.

• To reach every farmer irrespective of its size and location is not an easy task.

Conclusion:

This is a very bold initiative of the Government of India which can be conveniently extended to other cash crops including their storage and distribution. The farmers will get minimum support price which is always higher than the ruling market price.

Elimination of intermediaries /multiple agencies will ensure smooth procurement and distribution in a most transparent manner. Adequate publicity of this programme is extremely important to educate the farmers regarding the benefits of the scheme.Nabard /RRB /State co-op/central co-op banks/government administrative machineries will play a very vital role for the successful implementation of the scheme.