Business of Agriculture March April 2019 Edition | Page 19

AGRI-WAREHOUSING:
By: Sandeep Sabharwal *
I
n the past few decades, India has made big strides
from being the importer of food grains to one of
its leading exporters. As agricultural production
has increased owing to the introduction of modern
high yielding varieties and the adoption of more
scientific and efficient farming practices, the demand
for storage has also increased to the manifold. This
has contributed to the evolution of agri-warehousing
in the country which has come a long way in the last
decade from the ancient granaries and ‘godowns’,
to a modern, scientific state-of-the-art temperature
controlled storage and highly specialised function.
While the basic function to store food grains remains
the same, the methodology and technologies have
seen significant advancement in the last few years. The
large-scale and technologically advanced warehouses
with modernised silo storage today probably has very
little in common with the traditional stone structure
with raised flooring that passed as storage.
Agri-warehousing industry has witnessed innovation
in every aspect from infrastructure design to storage
methods and processes with embracement of
scientific and technological know-how. Along with the
creation of additional infrastructure, the focus should
now be on the adoption of innovative solutions in
space management, logistical efficiency and the safety
of stored goods.
Agri-warehousing in India is fast catching up in
the adoption of scientific facilities management,
storage and inventory management practices, and
technologically advanced equipment. Below are
some of the must have scientific technologies in
today’s modern warehouses, the adoption of any or
all of which will result in significant improvements
in operational efficiency, space utilisation and also
significant cost savings:
INNOVATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE FUTURE
While the
basic function
to store
food grains
remains the
same, the
methodology
and
technologies
have seen
significant
advancement
in the last few
years
Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
WMS is a software application designed to support
warehouse management activities. A WMS can be
tailor-made and tweaked for maximum efficiency in
managing the supply and demand of warehouses and
are instrumental in effective planning of daily activities,
loading/unloading sequences, staffing requirements
and dispatch.
Business of Agriculture
| March-April 2019 • Vol. V • Issue 2
19