Srinagar, August 16: To counter post-harvest losses and financial difficulties for apple growers, the Horticulture Department Kashmir is planning to add eight more cold storage facilities in Kashmir valley which are expected to increase 40,000 metric tonnes capacity.
Over the years the department has improved the cold storage facilities that are aimed to facilitate the farmers and save the fruit crop to gain good profit in the market.
Subject Matter Specialist, Directorate of Horticulture Kashmir, Mohd Amin Bhat said the department is planning to add eight more storage facilities in the valley.
“The eight more cold storage units which are in pipelines are expected to further improve capacity of 40,000 metric tonnes which would be a major boost,” he said.
Interestingly, the Subject Matter Specialist said the horticulture department has extended the cold storage facilities from 1.8 lakh mt in 2022 to 2.06 lakh metric tonnes this year. He said that the number of cold storage facilities has been improved from 42 in 2022 to 44 this year.
He said that the department is more focused on the extension of cold storage facilities. “By providing more cold storage facilities, our apple produce could be stored for more months, which will help get a good price in the market,” Bhat said.
He also said that the department has plans to improve cold storage facilities to 5 lakh mt in the coming three to five years in order to store apples in huge quantities.
“Kashmir produces apples in bulk. In case of a decrease in rates farmers need to store apples for months. The addition to 5 lakh mt cold storage facilities will ease farmers,” he said.
The cold storage facilities are spread in Pulwama, Baramulla, Srinagar, Shopian and Anantnag. Most of the cold storage facilities are located in Pulwama and Shopian districts.
Officials also said that the UT government, under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP), has taken several steps to construct cold storage facilities in both the public and private sectors, with priority given to apple-producing regions.
“To incentivize entrepreneurs, they are offered a reward of Rs 10,000 per metric ton of cold storage space under the MIDH and PMDP schemes. Moreover, under the UT Capex program, a top-up incentive of Rs 14,520 per metric ton of cold storage space is provided for activities that are not covered under central schemes by the beneficiary,” they said.
Additionally, the beneficiary can take advantage of interest subvention under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund or Industrial Development Scheme.
