With respect to the storage of the agricultural produce, there has been a long debate whether Flat warehouses are good for India or we need to modernize them by having vertical silos. Discuss the pros and cons of the both.
Storage is one of the vital components in the process of agriculture. Proper Storage of agricultural produce is pretty essential for the purpose of
- distribution of produce from surplus to deficit areas
- price stabilization to ease out a volatile market
Warehouse is the essential infrastructure that enables storage. Warehouse could be defined as a commercial building which is essentially a large plain building which can hold goods in bulk quantity.
While FLAT WARE HOUSE is essentially a one storey building or a room which can be used for storage of goods. A VERTICAL SILO is one which is a cylindrical building which can be used to store bulk materials (which are primarily grain, coal cement, wood chips, saw dust etc). while both flat ware house and vertical silo have been debated, there has been both pros and cons about them.
pros of a flat ware house
i. easy to construct
ii. can be used for storage purpose of variety of products
iii. can be be used for the display of goods for sale
iv. transportation could be easy via flat warehouse
cons of flat warehouse includes
i. they occupy larger space (as compared to vertical silos)
ii. high construction costs
iii. difficulty in keeping optimum storage conditions for the grains- through control of temperature, insects, moulds, birds etc
on the other hand, the pros of vertical silos include
i. It requires less ground space (as compared to flat ware houses)
ii. It incurs lower costs in long run for the purpose of its construction, assembling and running
iii. It facilitates automation of transportation
iv. provides optimum storage conditions by controlling temperature, insects, birds etc
cons of vertical silos
i. suitable only for grains, not any other agricultural produce
ii.multiple varieties of produce cannot be stored at one place
iii. difficulty in display of produce (for the sale purpose)
Although they both have their pros and cons, they shall be used for different kinds of produce. (like for food grains silos are ideal, while for fruits or flowers, flat warehouses are ideal)
Topics: GS-III: Food Processing and Related Industries