West Bengal to set up cold storages in all farmers' markets

The West Bengal agriculture marketing department is planning to set up cold-storages in the premises of all 'kisan mandis' or marketplaces where farmers sell their produce directly to buyers.

These will be set-up across 88 such farmers' markets in the state on a public-private partnership model.

Earlier, the government led by the Trinamool Congress had decided to set up only warehouses in these markets but came up with this idea so that perishable items, namely vegetables could be stored for a longer period of time.

The ruling party on its official website said about 50 warehouses for seeds are also under construction.

"The proposed godowns will entail an estimated investment of Rs.23 crore. The state government has released Rs.10 crore for this project," the statement said.

The state agriculture department has also planned to open an office in Haldia for supervising the construction of these markets for the East Midnapore district.

"Haldia Development Authority has already sanctioned a land for this purpose," it said.

The kisan mandis were conceived by the government to eliminate the role of middlemen in the trade and entail the farmer just payment.