'India needs better cold chain infrastructure'

India was the largest producer of fruits and vegetables and critically required a cold chain infrastructure to minimise the losses in this area, said Sharad Pawar, Union agriculture minister, while addressing a session of the cold chain summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"The economic impact of cold chains will be felt in the villages. Farmers will get better realisation for their produce due to improved quality and shelf life," said Pawar.

The country produces commodities such as banana, mango and grapes in surplus, which needs to be exported. In order to facilitate exports, the country requires a pre-cooling chain at the farm level.

The expansion in retail and consumers' preference for fresh fruits and vegetables necessitates setting up of cold chain infrastructure.

"The country currently has a cold storage capacity of about 20 million tonne but most of it is dedicated to storage of potatoes", said P K Mishra, union agriculture secretary.

However, lack of electricity, power supply and other supporting infrastructure are a big deterrent in setting up such facilities. The summit recommended that the national horticulture board should be made a nodal agency for policy execution at the central level while state horticulture missions at state level. It also recommended setting up of a task force for developing a roadmap on cold chain development.

Pawar assured that the government would act upon summit recommendations for facilitating growth of cold chain infrastructure.