Indian warehousing of agricultural commodities – Preservation of stocks and implementation of WDRA 2007

The concept of warehousing in India is of recent origin. To ensure proper maintenance of the agriculture produce that was grown in the country and provide necessary provision for its storage especially in rural areas, the government in the year 1928 had set up a committee called Royal Commission on Agriculture to survey the market for fruitful implementation of its plans (Techno Serve, 1998). This has been followed by setting up of number of committees which has resulted into enactment of agriculture produce (Development and Warehousing) Act 1956 that has seen warehouse activity in the country for the first time. The paper presented as of now put thrust on the gradual development of warehouse activities in the country and preservation of farmer/trader stocks and to bring down storage losses to its optimum levels. Subsequently a ceasable amount of godown capacities have been added to store the agricultural commodities on scientific lines. The Government with a view to tighten its grip on warehousing activities by legalizing the warehouse receipts (Lacroix etal., 1996) to benefit the farming community has brought in a newAct called Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act 2007 which is also called WDRA 2007. This act ensures safety and security of stocks of the depositor and easy availability of institutional credit to farmers and other depositors.