Maharashtra agro corp to set up units to manage farmers' crop surplus

The state-owned Maharashtra Agro Industries Development Corporation (MAIDC) plans to procure mobile processing units to help farmers manage excess production of certain crops by enhancing their shelf life by 12-18 months, an official has said.

Oversupply in the market forces farmers to sell their produce, particularly the perishable ones, at throwaway prices or even discard them. The MAIDC initiative aims at ensuring good returns to the growers, said the managing director of the corporation, Mangesh Gondavale.

The official said they will procure two machines and deploy them in two districts by the next monsoon season on a pilot basis. Each machine can process 16-18 products and can be customised depending on the region, he said.

Processing includes washing, peeling, drying, chopping, slicing and liquefaction. For instance, tomatoes can be converted into puree, while onions can be dried for longer storage.

Sometimes, the overall production of a crop in a region becomes high. To ensure that farmers do not incur losses in such a situation, we will introduce two portable processing units, Gondavale said.

These machines can be taken directly to farms, saving farmers transportation costs, he said.

Each unit can process 150-200 tonnes of produce per day and is equipped for specialised packaging that extends shelf life by 12-18 months, he added.

Farmers can then take the product to the market when it is favourable to them. Also, processed crops fetch better prices, said Gondavale.

A Rajasthan-based startup founded by an IIT graduate will provide the processing units, each costing about Rs 1.5 crore, Gondavale said.

We have done a survey of the types of crops that these units can process. We will use the machines on an experimental basis in two districts by the next Kharif season. We will then propose to the district administrations to procure the units to help farmers in their region, he added.