When onion prices soared recently, better management of supply of fruits and vegetables to metros also came into spotlight. National Horticulture Board is working on better connectivity of production centres of fresh fruits and vegetables with important marketing hubs and has succeeded in reducing wastage from post-harvest management losses. In an interaction with FE’s Chanpreet Khurana, NHB managing director Bijay Kumar talks about new plans & initiatives.

Highlight some of NHB’s recent schemes to strengthen the network between production centres and marketing centres for fruits and vegetables in the country?

NHB aims at linking production centres for fresh fruits and vegetables with major markets in the country by a dedicated multi-modal transport system maintaining appropriate level of cold chain. The project for linking Turbhe-Nashik-Bhusawal-New Azadpur-Agra-Surat-Turbhe route has been undertaken as a pilot project under this concept, and is spear-headed by NHB, Indian Railways and CONCOR. The arrangement will comprise a containerised rail-rake, which targets banana, grapes, pomegranate, sapota, flowers, tomatoes, etc produced in the areas en-route to the Delhi market and return to Mumbai with produce such as table-potatoes, seed-potato, apples, carrots and stone fruits, etc. It is likely to be the first dedicated horticulture rail in the country.

Could you talk briefly about the need for adding capacity in cold storage infrastructure in the country to minimise wastage of at least 45 million tonne fruit and 90 million tonne vegetable ?production a year?

Horticulture produce needs cold storages, but studies indicate that only cold storages cannot fully address the problem of PHM losses. Proper crop management, post-harvest handling, stacking and transport to markets are equally important. Even a protected market shed deserves priority.

NHB, National Horticulture Mission and Horticulture Mission for North-East and hilly states are jointly focusing on these aspects and are also making adequate funds available for promoting investment in new cold storages.

It is note-worthy that the cold storages coming up during the year 2010-11 are energy-efficient and technically superior to earlier versions and are being designed and commissioned under the technical guidance of experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology, the National Institutes of Technology and private sector consultants.

What are the proposed measures to reduce post harvest management losses in tomatoes, the target crop of the year?

A vulnerability study of tomato shows that certain components of production technology such as staking, producer-trader active dialogue for harvesting of fruits at appropriate ripening stage according to target-markets, introduction of proper containers such as plastic crates and “kiltas” in hilly terrains, proper transport from field to market and market sheds may contribute immensely to reduction of PHM losses of tomatoes.

NHB also runs a programme to transfer technology to producers and farmers and service providers such as operators in cold storages. Please comment

NHB has many success stories relating to technology transfer for production of quality fruits and vegetables. For example, producer-exporters of mangoes from Rahaman Kheda in Lucknow had been given technology and financial support for export of Dashahari mangoes by sea route to Dubai using refrigerated containers. The experiment had been successful in finalising protocol for sea route transport of mangoes for exports.

For the production of quality litchies in the Muzaffarpur area of Bihar, farm machineries for canopy management of mango orchards were introduced. Also, new varieties of apricot from Armenia were introduced last year.

However, PHM protocols recommended by the World Food Logistic Organisation or WFLO need validation for Indian varieties of fruits and vegetables and Indian agro-climatic conditions. Providing economically viable technology solution which matches with our trading system is a big challenge.

Can you tell us about NHB’s ?Pesticide Residue Under Control Campaign? in the NCR Delhi region?

The campaign aims at identifying technology needs of the producer farmers of vegetables for production by maintain MRL level of pesticides. To begin with, NHB is identifying the producer groups at the back-end of organised retail chain outlets functioning in NCR Delhi. Such groups will be imparted production and plant protection technology with the help of National Centre for Integrated Pest Management and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.