Orissa to set up more cold storage with new technology

The Orissa government has decided to sell or lease out all the 17 cold storages under the management of the state cooperative department in different parts of the state.

It also proposes to set up at least 20 more cold storages in various market yards functioning under the regulated market committees (RMC) with an investment of Rs 8 crore.

The capacity of each of the proposed small cold storages would be around 20 tonnes, which would facilitate the farmers to keep their agriculture products for less than a week in the market yards, said the State Cooperation Minister, Surama Padhy.

"We have decided to sell or lease out all of our existing cold storages," Padhy said after the inaugural function of a training programme for the primary cooperative credit societies' employees.

The training programme is being conducted by the Orissa state cooperative union (OSCU) at the Center of Cooperative Management, Gopalpur.

"The government is not able to run all its cold storages. They have been lying defunct for several years," she said.

While at least two cold storages, located at Jagatpur and Aigania in Bhubaneswar, have already been leased out to the private parties, negotiations are going on to lease out two other cold storages, one of which is located at Hindol, she said.

"These cold storages are not viable as the refrigeration technology used there is very old," she said.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has recommended establishment of cold storages with the new refrigeration technology having 50,000-tonne capacity.

National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an organisation of the Centre, and the Horticulture Mission are providing subsides for setting up of the cold storages with the new technology.

The minister, however, ruled out the establishment of any cold storage utilising the new refrigeration technology by the government.

She said the small cold storages (cooling chambers) with the capacity of 20 tons would be established in selective market yards of RMCs.

Out of Rs 8 crore outlay for this purpose, Rs 5.60 crore would be provided by the Centre under the Horticulture Mission programme, the rest Rs 2.40 crore would be borne by the respective RMCs.

Under the provisions of the Orissa Agricultural Produce Markets Act 1956, there are 61 RMCs in the state for regulation of purchase and sale of agriculture produce.

The cooling chambers would be established in the selective market yards, where no cold storage facilities are available in nearby areas, the minister said.