An ambitious plan to develop a large central crop storage facility in the East Midlands has moved a step closer, with a £1.5m grant award from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), managed in the region by East Midlands Development Agency (emda).
 
Woldgrain Storage Ltd, a not-for-profit cooperative based near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, will use the funds to create over 26,000 tonnes of additional crop storage space, taking the total capacity at the site to over 50,000 tonnes. The RDPE funding will also enable Woldgrain to improve the facility and incorporate innovative new technology to control the drying, cleaning, sorting and grading of a variety of crops including wheat, oil seed rape and malting barley. Work will start on site in the coming weeks, and is due to be finished by early 2012.  Once complete, it is hoped that more arable farming businesses from the region will use the state-of-the-art plant house, which is the first of its kind in the East Midlands.  Thefacility will help farmers maximise their profits by reducing waste and making sure their crops meet the specifications and quality standards expected by processors.