Retailers' cold storage a green hazard: Study

A brand new report has questioned the sustainability of the cold storage network being put up by large retailers to improve the efficiency of the country's food supply chains and cut wastage.

A report by Navdanya, a seed sovereignty outfit, and its associate research body, the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology, says that these cold storages and the air-conditioned trucks, required to transport farm produce along the chain, would be an environmental disaster.

It has also questioned a recent World Bank report which had recommended such a centralised approach to prevent fruit and vegetable from perishing.

Retailers from across the globe have been lobbying hard with New Delhi to allow foreign direct investment in order to bring about supply chain efficiencies in the country's farm sector.

Several studies have pointed out that every year the country loses a large part of its farm produce because of the current inefficiencies. Meanwhile, large Indian business houses like the Mukesh Ambani Group and Bharti have entered the sector.

The Navadanya report says that the air-conditioning of the cold storage chains required for even a quarter of the fresh fruit and vegetable produced in the country would consume 6 million units of electricity a day. This power, experts say, is enough to light 150,000 households.

The World Bank report, Competing at Home to Competing Abroad: A case study of India's horticulture, had said 40 million tonnes of fruit and vegetable is wasted every year in the country and authors of the report had suggested that cold storages and big retail could provide solutions.

Projections made by Navadanya say that to preserve 40 million tonnes of fruit and vegetable "� a quarter of the total produce of the country "� a billion air-conditioned truck journeys would be required. This would mean emission of six billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide.

Says Navdanya Executive Director Vandana Shiva: "Do we want to pollute more by adopting an energy- intensive marketing model from the US?"

On its part, the World Bank says that the costs of energy should not be thrust on horticulture. While agreeing with Navadanya that establishing a cold chain may increase carbon-dioxide emissions, it said that "it is not right to starve a sector of energy simply on the grounds that it increases emissions."

The study includes a case study on Reliance Retail, the biggest retail chain coming up in the country, and questions the claims of direct procurement from farmers. It says that the chain is procuring from mandis and middlemen and, therefore, there is no direct linkage with the farmer.

According to Reliance Retail officials, direct procurement is happening through rural business hubs and the farmers are happy with the prices offered.