The agricultural sector is witnessing a paradigm shift with its cold chain infrastructure in the country. Aiming in the same direction, the Indian government is implementing various schemes for setting up cold storage for perishable horticultural produce under which financial assistance is available throughout the country.
The components are demand/entrepreneur driven for which the government is assisting in the form of credit-linked subsidy, providing 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% of the project cost in hilly and scheduled areas through respective State Horticulture Missions (SHMs).
With a crucial role in agriculture and allied sectors, a cold chain facility helps keep fresh produce like fruits and vegetables in a temperature-controlled environment which includes efficient storage, transportation, and distribution.
The initiative is aimed at avoiding damage to the agriculture & horticulture produce, besides cold storage, financial assistance is also provided for setting up of Pre-cooling Unit, Cold Room, Pack Houses, Integrated Pack House, Preservation unit, Reefer Transport, Ripening Chamber under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH).
The Importance of Cold Chain Network
The cold chains and post-harvest infrastructure significantly reduce agricultural waste and create a surplus for exports which leads to income generation for farmers. Further, the initiative will also go a long way in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger aiming at ending all forms of hunger & malnutrition.
To put things in perspective, a Cold chain facility is a method of logistics that involves refrigeration techniques to provide customers and clients with temperature-sensitive products in usable condition. The process consists of a network of tasks to prepare products for preparation, storing them appropriately, and transporting them carefully in refrigerated storage all the way through.
As per the study conducted by NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) in 2015 on “All India Cold-chain Infrastructure Capacity (AICIC-2015)”, the required capacity of cold storages at that time was 351.00 lakh MT against the existing capacity of 318.23 lakh MT in 2014.
Presently, there are 8,653 cold stores in the country with a capacity of 394.17 lakh MT.
Other Initiatives by the Government
The National Horticulture Board (NHB) is implementing a scheme namely ‘Capital Investment Subsidy for Construction/Expansion /Modernization of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Products’. Under the scheme, credit linked back-ended subsidy at the rate of 35% of the capital cost of the project in general areas and 50% in the case of North East, hilly & scheduled areas for construction of cold storage of capacity above 5,000 MT and up to 10,000 MT is available.
Further, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) is running a Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain, Value Addition, and Preservation Infrastructure as one of the components of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana’ intending to reduce post-harvest losses of horticulture and non-horticulture produce.
As part of the initiative, MOFPI provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 35% for general areas and 50% for Northeast and the Himalayan states at the rate of 50% and 75% respectively for value addition and processing infrastructure subject to a maximum grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 crore per project for setting up integrated cold chain projects including irradiation facility.