Mobile vans to buy from farmers in Lucknow area

To reduce transportation cost and check agricultural produce wastage, a private company based in Lucknow has decided to start a mobile pre-cooling and pre-packaging unit in the city.

The brain child of Mansoor Nadeem Lari, chairman and managing director of the Rainbow group of companies, the project involves procuring fruit and vegetables by the farmers directly from their fields.

“We will offer them the price the nearest mandi gives,” Lari told Business Standard.

The items procured from the farmers will be immediately refrigerated, preserving their freshness.

“As we will contact them ourselves, they can cut transportation cost,” he added.

The project has been approved by the National Horticulture Mission, which has also decided to support the project by providing 25 per cent subsidy for the cost of operations.

The company will start the project with two mobile vans initially; the number of vans will be increased to 10-15 in a year.

The initial investment will be about Rs 40 lakh for the project to be operational. This includes the cost of the vans, which is Rs 24 lakh.

The capacity of one van is 10 tonnes. Other than Lucknow, it will cover areas like Barabanki, Bahraich, and Rae Bareli.

“We want cultivators to produce value-added items that give them good returns. These include items like mango, guava, lady finger, and coriander. These are items whose durability can be increased. We will also provide them storage racks and crates to keep their produce clean and fresh,” he said.

The items once procured will be graded in terms of quality and then the price and market will be determined.

“We are talking to Reliance Fresh and Safal for supplying them the produce. For better market penetration we will contact local hawkers and also start our own retail chains in Lucknow,” Lari said.