The Adani Group has said it neither buys food grains from farmers nor decides their pricing, at a time protesting cultivators and the Opposition have named the company while expressing fears of a corporate takeover of agriculture.

The port-to-energy conglomerate said it only developed and operated grain silos for the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

“The company has no role in deciding the volume of storage as well as pricing of grain as it is only a service/infrastructure provider for the FCI,” the Adani Group said in a statement posted on its Twitter handle.

The FCI buys food grains from farmers and stores them in silos built through public-private partnership. While private players are paid a fee for building and storing the grains, the ownership of the commodity as well as its marketing and distribution rights belong to the FCI.

The FCI, Adani said, controls the procurement and movement of grains for the public distribution system (PDS).

Farmers protesting the government’s new farm laws have alleged that the legislation would allow “Adani-Ambani” to take over the sector. They have not said that the corporate groups at present control food grain procurement or movement.

Some farm groups have alleged that the Adanis are building storage facilities to hoard food grains and sell them at a higher price later.

“We do not own any food grains procured from farmers, and are in no way connected to the pricing of grains,” the Adani Group said.

The company said it had been in the business of developing and operating grain silos for the FCI since 2005. It sets up storage infrastructure after winning competitive and transparent tenders floated by the government, the Adani Group said.

Private rail lines that the company has built as part of these tenders are to facilitate the movement of grains from the silos to the distribution centres across India, the statement said.

The FCI, the Adani Group said, awards such contracts with a view to modernising the storage and transport infrastructure.