The safety vault

Now, the Punjab Government has declared the silo project at Dagru as a purchase centre as well— farmers can sell their wheat here instead of going to a grain market. The farmers are paid Rs 1019.17 per quintal here, roughly Rs 19.17 higher than the minimum support price announced by the government.

Says Puneet Mehndiratta, deputy general manager of Adani Agri, “Silos are the futuristic change in storage systems of food grains the world over. The basic idea is that here we have a capacity to store two lakh meteoric tons of wheat for nearly five years. This capacity is huge keeping in mind the fact that in the US and elsewhere, the maximum capacity of silos is about 50,000 metric tonne.”

Others are equally upbeat. Director Agriculture Punjab B. S. Sidhu says, “Silos are the future in food storage. The state government is pushing for two more such projects in Punjab alone, help for which we are seeking from the World Bank.”

Dr P. S. Rangi, consultant, Punjab Farmers Commission says, “Silos play a very important part in food security. We can store our surplus grain here and keep replenishing the stock every five years.”