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| Punjab government to set up pack-houses |
| Komal Amit Gera / New Delhi/ Chandigarh Nov 05, 2009, 00:35 IST |
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The Punjab government is planning to set up pack-houses in synergy with Agriculture and Processed Food Products Exports Promotion Authority (APEDA) at ten locations in the state.
The initiative of the state government is an outcome of the efforts of enterprising farmers in the state who have been exporting fresh vegetables to the UK without any government assistance.
The state government plans to put up state-of-the-art pack houses with the help of 100 per cent financial assistance from APEDA to help farmers raise the volume of business.
An official in the state government apprised Business Standard that ten clusters had been identified in the state where the fresh vegetables were grown by the quality conscious farmers.
“Patiala, Taran-Taran, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Faridkot, Sangrur, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nabha and Samana have been identified as the farmers in these pockets were already growing vegetables for the export market. The government plans to facilitate the farmers to streamline the process, increase the volume of business and help to raise income level of the farmers,” he added.
Since a lot of personal attention is required for growing quality vegetables, the small and marginal farmers would benefit the most from this, he added.
He said the land would be arranged by the group of farmers (generally half an acre land is required) and it would cost about Rs 1.2 crore for setting up one pack house. The Punjab Agro Industry would train the farmers in running the processes and aparatus and would hand over the pack-house to the farmers after three years when they are fully acquainted with running the pack-house.
Each packhouse would be provided with one pick-up van as transportation by the tractor-trolley effects the quality of vegetables.
Harmandeep, a farmer from Ludhiana district said there had been a growing demand for fresh vegetables by the non-resident Indian population in the UK and a good post-harvest infrastructure in Punjab could go a long way in assuring better returns by catering to the foreign markets.
The pack houses would provide mechanical grading, pre-cooling (to remove the field heat), forced air cooling system (to help in controlling the microbial activities), cold rooms and pre fabricated cold storages. The capacity of each pack house would be 4 tonne per batch and 30 tonne of pre-cooling.
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