Govt to focus on pack houses, refrigerated vehicles

The Agriculture Ministry today said the country has sufficient cold storage capacity of 32 million tonnes and now it would focus on promoting setting up of modern pack houses and refrigerated vehicles to reduce wastage of perishable commodities.
For the first time, the Ministry commissioned a study to assess the demand, current status and gaps in cold-chain infrastructure. The study has been prepared by the government's autonomous body National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD), along with NABARD Consultancy Services.
"All these years, we have been giving thrust on enhancing the cold storage capacity. But our study says there is only 3.5 million tonnes of gap in cold storage capacity and more focus should be given on pack houses and refrigerated vans under the existing schemes," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan told reporters after the releasing the study.

Quoting the study, the Minister said the country had a cold storage capacity of 31.8 million tonnes as on March 2014 while the demand is estimated at 35.3 million tonnes. Much of this storage space is built in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, where a maximum of potatoes is being stored.
Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain was on the same page, who said, "The report has highlighted that the gap in India's cold chain is not as much due to lack of cold storage capacity, but has more to do with various other components like pack houses, refrigerated vehicles necessary to implement farm-to-fork connectivity."

The earlier studies conducted by various private organisations had estimated the country's cold storage capacity requirement at 61 million tonnes for perishable products. "Those estimates were wrong. We will focus more on building new components under our existing schemes," he added.

According to the study, there are close to 250 pack houses in the country to meet the food demand in urban cluster, but the requirement is 70,000 pack houses, each equipped with a pre-cooler and dispatch room for onward transports links.
Also, the country needs 62,000 refrigerated vehicles while the current availability is less than 10,000.
Currently, the government is providing financial support for setting up of cold storage units under various schemes implemented by various ministries. The Agriculture Ministry gives financial support for setting up of such units under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.